Life After You
by LoveBoat07
Summary: Season 3- Julie Cooper is a hunter. She knew the boys from when they were younger. Meets up with Sam and Dean at the beginning of Season 3. I suck at summaries so just give the first chapter a shot. Rated M just in case. Dean/OC
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: Now, obviously I do not own the characters were are all so familiar with and love so much. The only thing that is mine is Julie Cooper and her family. This story will start at the beginning of season three and, yes, it involves Dean falling in love with a friend from the past. I'll make up my own storylines but will also use episodes from the season sort of as a guide to where I want to go. Some lines will be directly from the episodes but I'll probably avoid doing that because I don't have the time to watch an episode and write verbatim what was said. My favorite lines or conversations will probably appear. This story is a work in progress. I have no clear vision of how I want it go. I'll try and update as quickly as possible but sometimes I might get a bad case of writer's block and you may not hear from me for a few weeks. I apologize ahead of time. Also, keep in mind I'm not going to post a chapter with very little content. Most of my chapters will be slightly longer, which will mean more time goes into them. Reviews are always appreciated and feel free to let me know what you think should happen. As each chapter is posted, chances are good I still haven't thought about how the next one is going to go so your input is helpful. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy! ~AL_

"Claire?" Julie called as she entered the motel room. She tossed her purse and gun onto the table and then looked around. The motel room was pretty much your standard dive motel room. There were two beds with tacky bedspreads, a TV that worked a fourth of the time, a dresser that the TV sat on with four long drawers, a mirror, some lamps, and a table with two chairs. The entire room was empty though. "Claire-belle, we're back!" Julie yelled again when she didn't get a response. Just then the door opened behind her and her friend Dean walked in with a few bags of food. "Where's Claire he asked?" Julie shrugged and took off her jacket as she walked back to the bathroom portion of the room. The bathroom wasn't a pretty one. It looked like the last time it had been thoroughly clean was a couple dozen years ago. The toilet had a really gross ring around it and Julie felt gross sitting on it. The upside was she hadn't seen any bugs or any rats yet, which pretty much never happened. The toilet and tub/shower were the only things in a different room and the sink sat outside of it. The door to the bathroom was shut and Julie could see light coming out of the bottom of it. Julie knocked twice on the door. "Hurry up!" She yelled at her sister. "We picked up dinner!" She waited a few seconds and when she didn't get a response she knocked again. "Claire!" She yelled louder. When her sister still failed to respond the first feeling of dread filled her stomach. Julie tried the knob and found it locked. "Claire, open the door!" She jiggled the handle a few times. "Screw this!" She said when she didn't get a response. She stepped back and found the weakest spot on the door and gave it a good hard kick. The door flew in. "Claire!" Julie screamed a panic ridden voice once she'd found her sister.

Clair was lying on the bathroom floor and blood was everywhere. Her eyes were wide and unblinking and the usual flicker of life that always hovered behind those big brown eyes of hers was out. Her skin was almost as white as floor but it had more of a grayish tinge to it. Her head was resting against the wall and her left leg was bent in the most uncomfortable looking way around the toilet. The floor was covered in her blood and there were three long vertical slits on her wrists. Blood was on the walls, on the mirror, and in the sink. There was a white bath towel lying on the floor next to her body and it was saturated in her blood. Lying a few feet from her body was a dagger covered in her blood. The bathroom looked like what you'd expect the scene of a suicide to look like. Her body looked like it had been like that for hours. Just looking at her you expected her skin to be cold.

Julie rushed over to Claire's body and took her head in her lap. "Claire!" She said urgently as she felt her neck. She waited two seconds before grabbing the wrist that wasn't slit and feeling for a pulse. She waited five seconds this time before realizing that the reason she couldn't find a pulse was because there wasn't one. Claire's heart had stopped beating. Tears welled up in her eyes as the realization hit her. "Oh god." She said. Her sister was dead. The sister Julie had practically raised, the sister who had spent most of her childhood asking her old sister questions, the sister who had always been so full of life, the sister who had always been a massive pain in the ass because of her inability to listen to the simplest of orders, was dead. Julie was never going to see Claire roll her eyes when Julie told her to do something. Julie was never going to hear that almost musical laughter of hers. Claire would never again wake Julie up by either hitting her in the face with a pillow or jumping up and down on her bed. Claire was dead. "No, no, no, no." Julie mumbled as she cradled Claire's face in her hands. "Claire, sweetie, please, please….I need you." She pleaded, her voice breaking at the end. "CLAIRE!" Julie screamed shaking her sister's body violently hoping that Claire was just sleeping.

"What's going…oh my god!" Dean said as he came into the bathroom. He kneeled down next to Julie and grabbed Claire's uninjured wrist off the floor and felt for a pulse. As soon as he'd touched her skin he'd known she was gone. It was like ice. Julie looked over at Dean with a lost expression on her face and tears streaming down her cheeks. "She won't wake up." Julie said in a voice that sounded so much like a little girl. It didn't matter to Julie that Claire's eyes were already open. Dean's heart had broken when he'd first seen Claire's body. It had broken more when he'd touched her skin and felt how cold it was and then it had broken some more when he'd realized there was no pulse. But the thing that had absolutely shattered his heart was the look on Julie's face and the way she'd spoken to him. Dean, who had been kneeling, practically fell on his butt and he'd had to lean against the wall. His stomach rolled and he felt like he was going to be sick. He put his hands down on the ground to keep from falling over. As his right hand hit the ground it had touched a light powdery substance. He looked down and saw this yellowish white powder on the ground. He lifted his hand up and smelled it. "Sulfur." He said quietly to himself. He'd known in his heart that Claire could never have killed herself but now he knew it was a demon. Claire was just another victim of demonic violence.

_FOUR YEARS LATER_

"Hey big sis." Claire said to her sister as she sat on the edge of the bed. Her signature smile was in place. Julie stared at her with wide eyes.

"Claire-belle." She said in a voice that was full of relief. She smiled at her little sister. "I haven't seen you in a while. I was beginning to wonder if you'd left me."

"No." Claire said as she shook her head. "But you're forgetting about me." Claire accused. Julie shook her head violently.

"No, I could never forget about you." She insisted. Claire nodded her head.

"That's why you haven't seen me. You're forgetting."

"I'm not!" Julie said in an urgent voice. "You're my sister, Claire. I love you." Claire smiled.

"Is that why you left me alone, Julie?" Claire asked. Julie narrowed her eyes in confusion. "Is that why you ran off with Dean to kill some ghost and left me all alone?" The smile had left her face and she had a hard edge in her voice. "You'd only been gone a few minutes when the demon came in. I guess you forgot to salt the door before running off. Were you in that much of a hurry to get away from me?" Julie shook her head violently as tears fell from her eyes.

"No, Claire, I swear. I didn't know. If I would have known I never would have left you."

"Yes you would!" Claire insisted. "You never loved me. I was just your responsibility." Julie shook her head.

"No, I loved you." Julie insisted.

"Then why'd you leave me?" Claire yelled. "Why'd you let the demon get me?" Tears continued to fall from Julie's eyes. "This is all your fault! You should have been there!" Claire yelled. Julie shook her head trying to find the words to explain. "You killed me!" Claire yelled her face inches from Julie's

Julie sat up with a jolt in her bed. She looked quickly around the motel room and saw that she was alone. Her breathing was extremely hurried and her hands were clenching the bed sheets tightly. Her heart was racing and she was covered in a cold sweat. It took a moment before she was able to realize that what had just happened hadn't been real. It had only been a dream. Claire hadn't really been sitting next to her. She couldn't have been because Claire was dead. Her bones had been salted and burned so that no demon could ever possess her and she could never become a vengeful spirit. Julie had made sure of that. She looked over at the alarm clock and saw that it was just after four AM, which meant she'd been asleep for all of three hours when the dream had hit. Julie sighed and ran a hand through her hair. The dreams weren't uncommon. Sometimes they were even good. Julie never knew night to night what she was going to dream. Some nights she made it all the way through without having a single dream of her sister. Other nights she dreamed of memories involving Claire or she'd just talk to her sister about life and it almost felt like she was really there. On the bad nights Julie dreamed of the night she found Claire. On the really bad nights she dreamed of Claire yelling at her, accusing her of never having loved her and wanting her dead. Tonight's dream had been bad but it was far from being the worst one she'd had.

Instead of even trying to go back to sleep, Julie threw the comforter off of her and got out of bed. She grabbed her bag and quickly went to take a shower. It had been four years since Claire had died. Dean had been the ones to call the cops. They'd ruled it as a suicide and had released the body two days later. Julie had the bones sprinkled with salt before being cremated, which had earned her weird looks from the people doing it. She'd than taken her sister's ashes to the Grand Canyon to sprinkle them. Claire had always loved the Grand Canyon. The day Julie had left with her sister's ashes was the last day Julie had seen or talked to Dean. She'd woken up before him and had left. He'd tried calling her a million times the first few months after Claire's death and over time the calls just stopped. He tried to be there for her but Julie had always been the type of person to go at it all alone. Even now, four years later, every time Julie walked into a bathroom her stomach turned and she had to concentrate really hard on not letting the night she found Claire flood her mind with memories. Julie would shower as quickly as humanly possible and then get dressed outside of the bathroom. Julie never turned the light on when she went to the bathroom and sometimes even managed to do it with her eyes closed. When the bathroom wasn't in use, the door was always kept closed. The bathrooms would change but no matter how different they were, the memories were still there.

After her shower, Julie quickly dressed in a pair of ripped grey jeans tucked into black combat boots, a white muscle tank, her favorite black leather motorcycle jacket, the locket her father had given her for her fifth birthday, a guitar pick necklace, and the silver cross necklace that had once belonging to Claire. She put a little bit of product in her hair to keep her long, dark red-orange, tightly curled hair from frizzing out like a Jew fro. She put on her makeup, going a little bit darker on the eye makeup than usual to help combat the dark circles under eyes from lack of sleep. Julie had to force herself not to reflect on how different her current morning routine was from the one that had once upon a time annoyed her so much. Julie had had to either wake up an hour before Claire in order to take a shower and get ready without her sister's interference. If she neglected to do that then Julie had to shower and then try to get ready while sharing the mirror with Claire, who was the girly one of the group. The morning routine had been one of the things that had annoyed her so much about traveling with her sister but was one of the things Julie smiled more than anything now that Claire was gone.

Without turning the light on, Julie had packed up her toiletries from the bathroom and then worked on getting all her things off the counter packed up. When Julie traveled she had one bag for toiletries, one bag for her clothes, and a much larger bag for her weapons. The most important thing a hunter could have on them at all times was an arsenal. Julie, being a hunter, had an arsenal on her at all times and one in the back of her 1970 Ford F250. The truck was her baby. It had a lift kit put on it and had some things done to the engine to improve its speed and it's pick up and go. The Truck had been her mother's before her mother had quit hunting. It was one of the few things Julie had of her mother's. After getting all her toiletries packed away, Julie had gone around the room and packed up all the weapons she'd had strategically placed around the room in case she needed one at any point throughout her stay. Once those were all packed up, Julie made sure all of her clothes had made their way back into her duffle bag and had then made sure to erase almost any been there. If no one would have called her paranoid for vacuuming her hairs off the bed, she probably would have done it. One of the lessons her father had taught her as a little girl was to never make it easy for anyone to find her. That meant wiping down your prints before leaving a room and making sure to never get caught on security cameras.

Now from the sounds of it, Julie may seem like a criminal to you but she wasn't. As mentioned above she was a hunter. Her only job in this world was to hunt down the things normal people didn't believe existed and kill them. That meant her coworkers were usually pissed off spirits, demons possessing humans, werewolves who didn't always know they were werewolves, vampires that wanted to either kill her or turn her, and other supernatural creatures and monsters. It wasn't a good life but it was the only one she'd ever known. Her parents had both been hunters and had actually met and fallen in love on a hunt. When her mother had found out she was pregnant with Julie's older brother, Jace, her parents had decided to quit hunting to raise their kids in a normal life. Jace was seven years older than Julie and Claire had been five years younger than her. When Julie was five and Claire had only been a few months old, their mother had been killed by a demon. The demon had possessed her mother and ridden her body so hard that when the demon finally left her mother's body it was already too late to save her. After her mother's death, Max Cooper, Julie's father, had become obsessed with the hunt.

He'd force Jace, Julie, and Claire to learn how to not only protect themselves but hunt. He'd taught them how to defend themselves with every weapon known to man, including their own bodies. He'd taught them what killed what and how to repel what. Julie, at five, had become a soldier and a mother to her baby sister. It had always been Julie's job to take care of Claire. Jace had left his family and the hunting life behind when he was eighteen and Julie hadn't heard from him since. When Julie had graduated high school, her father had always just assumed she'd go to college and take Claire with her. He hadn't anticipated her actually enjoying the hunting lifestyle and wanting to stay in it. But she had. Julie was always more of tomboy growing up. She loved weapons, cars, and hunting. When she'd told her father that she didn't want to go to college and that she wanted to be a hunter, the two had spent four hours yelling at each other. In the end her father had said that if Julie wanted to be a hunter she was going to have to do it alone. He hadn't anticipated his youngest daughter following her big sister but Claire had.

As a kid, most things in Julie's life constantly changed. They didn't have a home, or family, or even friends. They'd only had each other. While her father was hunting a werewolf in New Orleans, he'd met up with another hunter by the name of John Winchester. Julie had been eight at the time. John had two sons of his own, Dean and Sam. Dean was five years older than she was and Sam was one year older. Julie had gotten along great with the Winchesters. Jace was so focused on school he had barely spoken two words to them and Claire had been so young she'd had nothing in common with them. Throughout the years, John and Max met up a few time to hunt and every time they'd leave their kids together while they went out for days at a time. A little over a year after the explosive fight with her father, Julie was working a case in Nebraska when she'd bumped into Dean Winchester. The two worked the case together and then just decided to stick together for a while. John was off on his own. Sam was in college at Stanford. And Julie still hadn't heard from Jace. Claire, Julie, and Dean had become somewhat of a family. They stayed together for almost ten months, until Claire had died. Since then, Julie hadn't talked to Dan and had been hunting on her own. She'd called her father to let him know about Claire but never got call back. Jace had only said he'd known something like this was going to happen and then practically accused Julie of causing Claire's death. Julie was on her own and she didn't necessarily like it but it was for the best.

Once everything was packed away, Julie carried her stuff out to the truck and dropped it all into the bed, beneath the tarp. She turned in the keys to her room and then driven just across the street to the gas station. She filled up the truck, got breakfast from the attached McDonald's, and gotten a large coffee. Once back in the truck she took a quick look at the map to make sure she knew where she was going. She spent a good three minutes deciding on what CD to listen to before turning the truck on. She drove out of town with her truck's speakers blaring her favorite AC/DC CD, which happened to be Back in Black.

_**FREDERICKSBURG, TEXAS**_

"That's gunna leave a mark." Julie said in a strained voice as she attempted to sit up. She was in Fredericksburg, Texas and had just met the ghost that was doing all the killing. As soon as he'd seen Julie he'd sent her flying backwards until she'd crashed into a hard, concrete wall. On the way down she'd landed slightly oddly on her ankle and twisted it. She also landed on a mattress that had probably been here since the hospital closed down back in the early seventies. It was stained and smelled like a mixture of garbage, vomit, and urine. Julie reached out and grabbed her shotgun filled with rock salt off the ground and forced herself to get up. What she really wanted was to do was go back to the gross motel she'd checked into and go to sleep. She was exhausted and getting chucked around by ghosts wasn't helping matters either. Usually Julie did research and then went to confront the ghosts but she'd gotten to town pretty late. She decided, just for kicks, she'd go to the old shut down insane asylum and just see if anything popped out at her. The answer was yes, there was a ghost problem and he was very, very pissed off.

With a groan, Julie managed to pull herself up and with the promise of cheesecake at the next the restaurant that served it she managed to get herself back to the hunt. She walked back out into the hall and started walking with her eyes peeled wide for any ghosts. It had barely been two minutes before Julie saw the ghost that had already attacked her again. She aimed her shotgun at it before speaking. "I am so going to end you." She promised. Just as she was about to pull the trigger she was hit from behind. Unfortunately she was standing right next to the stairs at this time and she went tumbling down the. She landed in a heap at the bottom and felt very confused from hitting her head. Today just wasn't her day. Today was one of those days that she should have stayed in bed with fattening take out and watched cheesy chick flicks all day so that she could make fun of them. One thing she did learn from this experience was that there was not one but two ghosts haunting the building, and quite possibly more.

Before she was able to get up the ghost of the man that had thrown her against the wall was standing in front of her with an evil look on his face. Julie reached around for her gun and then saw it at the top of the stairs next to a female ghost with wide, terrified eyes. She was pretty sure she was the ghost that had shoved her down the stairs. The male ghost grabbed her around the neck and slowly picked her up. Julie grabbed his hand and tried to pry his hand loose. The ghost kept lifting her until her feet were off the ground and she could no longer keep from being strangled. As the man lifted her higher and higher her head started getting fuzzier and fuzzier. Her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen. Julie tried kicking out with her foot but it went right through the ghost. How is it that the ghost was able to pick her up and strangle her but she couldn't even kick the damn thing? It didn't make any sense to her. The evil grin on the ghost's face widened when he realized he was killing her.

That's when Julie heard the loud bang of a shotgun. The ghost instantly disappeared and Julie quickly dropped to the ground, twisting her ankle in a funny way once again. "Ugh, tonight sucks." Julie said as two sets of feet quickly ran in her direction. A set of hands grabbed her by her biceps and gently pulled her to her feet. The man asked if she was okay and she nodded as she dusted some of the dust and dirt off her clothes. When she looked up she was left momentarily breathless. The man staring down at her was definitely attractive. He had short brown hair, intense greenish eyes, just the right amount of hair on his jaw line, and he was pretty tall. He was also a guy that Julie knew. It was Dean Winchester, the guy she never thought she'd ever see again. Behind him was a taller guy with dark brown shaggy hair, light greenish eyes, and a really, really strong jaw line. He looked familiar but in a way that Julie could really describe. It took a second before she remembered who he was. It was Sam Winchester only he was all grown up.

"Julie?" Dean asked shocked. Julie sighed. She sort of wished she was being strangled by the ghost again. "What are you doing here?" Julie shrugged.

"Apparently getting my ass kicked by Casper." She said in a depressed tone. "What are you doing here?"

"Hunting." Dean said casually. "Are you okay?" He asked when he saw her favoring one foot over another. Julie sighed.

"Yeah, Casper and his little ghost slut are just having fun flinging me all over the damn place."

"There's more than one ghost" Dean asked. Julie nodded. "How do you know?"

"Well Casper already flung me across the room once and then I got flung down the stairs while he was nowhere near me. I saw a female ghost at the top of the stairs when I looked up after she pushed me." Julie explained. "I'm sorry but is Gigantor back there really little Sammy?" Julie had to ask. Dean smiled.

"Yeah, that's Sam." He said. Sam smiled at Julie.

"You were such a little thing the last time I saw you." Julie said remembering how she was taller than him even though she was younger.

"Yeah well I hit puberty late." Julie shrugged.

"I'm still waiting for it to hit me." She said pointing to her small chest. Dean chuckled and Sam smiled while looking mildly uncomfortable. "I've gotten the shit kicked out of me enough for one night. I'm heading out and I'll do some research tomorrow." Julie said walking up the stairs to retrieve her shotgun. "Are you boys going to have a look around?"

"If there's more than one ghost we should probably wait till we know more." Sam reasoned. Dean sighed.

"I knew you were going to say that." He said in an upset voice as Julie picked up her shotgun. "We were going to get something to eat after this. You care to join us?" Dean asked. Julie sighed as she thought about the question. She missed Dean and wanted to catch up with him but just looking at him brought back very painful memories. He sighed. "Come on, Jules. A burger and a glass of beer. We've done it a million times."

"Things were different back then Dean." She said in a sad voice. He nodded.

"If it gets too awkward you can just walk out." He said. Julie sighed again.

"Fine, but you're paying." She said pointing a finger at him. Dean smiled.

"Don't I always?" He said holding his hands out wide. Julie smiled as she walked past the boys and towards the opening in the board she'd used to get in.

_**AT THE BAR**_

"Okay, so last I heard, you were going to Stanford." Julie said to Sam once they were at Toni's. Julie had a burger and beer. Dean had the same. Sam had a salad and a glass of water. Sam smiled at her.

"I was actually. I was going for my law degree." Sam said. Julie looked at him curiously.

"So what happened?" Julie asked before taking a sip of beer.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I mean you got out of this life, Sam. You were living the dream, you know the normal life. What happened? Why'd you get back in?" Sam sighed.

"Some things happened while I was at school that sort of made me realize you could never get out of this life, not really." Sam said in a vague voice. Julie sighed.

"Who was it?" She asked. Sam looked at her curiously. "You know exactly what I mean so don't act like you don't." Sam sighed.

"My girlfriend. Her name was Jessica." Julie smiled at him sadly.

"I'm sorry." He nodded.

"This life isn't so bad." Sam reasoned after a moment of silence. Julie raised her eyebrows at him. He chuckled. "Okay, so the pay sucks, we get no benefits, and we get beat up on an alarmingly frequent basis but we get to help people." He said. Julie smiled.

"There's the Sammy Winchester I knew." Sam smiled and opened his mouth. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know .It's Sam." Julie said. Sam had asked her six times already to call him Sam, not Sammy.

"So, we're not going to go after the ghosts tonight, are we?" Dean asked coming over to the table. Sam shook his head.

"Why?" Dean smiled and nodded to two slutty blondes at a table. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Morgan and her best friend Laura would do anything to get into show business and I mean anything." Dean said with a cocky smile. "So, if we're not going after the ghosts, I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I…ya know." Dean said. Sam smiled uncomfortably.

"We were going to do research." Julie told Dean. Dean looked over at Julie with a sad face.

"But Julie and I can handle it." Sam said quickly. Dean smiled while Julie looked at Sam in outrage. Dean clapped his brother on the back.

"Thank you Sammy." He said before walking back over to the girls. Julie leaned forward and smacked Sam's arm.

"Ow!" He said rubbing his arm and glaring at Julie. She glared right back.

"I hate research, Sam. If I have suffer he should too." Julie reasoned. Sam sighed.

"It probably won't take long. We don't need him. Besides, he tends to make research even more unbearable." Julie sighed.

"Is it always like this with you two?" Julie asked leaning back in her seat.

"Like what?" Sam asked in an uncomfortable tone.

"Dean doing whatever he wants and you doing all the work because if it is, I gotta tell you, the arrangement sucks." Sam shook his head.

"Some things have happened recently and I just figure Dean deserves to have a little bit of fun." Julie opened her mouth to ask what and Sam shook his head, making her stop. "Let's just pay and go back to the motel." Julie sighed.

"Fine." She said standing up and grabbing her jacket off the back of the chair. "But if this takes all night, I'm going to kick your ass." She promised. Sam smiled.

_**BACK AT THE MOTEL**_

"I am so very glad we're stuck here reading countless articles while your jackass of a brother is out boning the tipsy twins." Julie said in an annoyed tone after once again reading another newspaper article that had sounded promising in the beginning but had turned into nothing. The hospital they were investigating was one that had first opened its doors in 1837. From what Julie had read it had a long history of being one of the most humane asylums in the country. They focused on making their patients comfortable and doing what they could for them as opposed to trying to treat them. Patients died in the hospital, of course, but from all the records Julie could find none of them had died violent enough deaths to cause a haunting. It is possible for a ghost to become vengeful just because they died but that very rarely happens. People who weren't always right in the head probably had a higher propensity of becoming vengeful spirits just because. But to have two of them in the same building didn't make any sense. A haunting isn't uncommon but if every place people said was haunted ended up being haunted then the entire North American continent would be filled with ghosts. When a haunting does in fact happen it's because of a very violent death, usually. To have two ghosts in one building would be possible and would make sense if the hospital had been one of the more experimental hospitals but it wasn't.

Julie scrolled through the hits on her search and found something that looked like it might be more of what she was looking for. She opened the link and found a picture of the male ghost that had tried to kill her that night. She read through the article and smiled because she'd found their ghosts. Silas Murdoch was a serial killer from the early 1970's. He'd used the abandoned asylum as his killing grounds. He hung out at the college campus late at night and waited for a girl to be walking on her own. He'd knock her unconscious and carry her back to the asylum. He would then strap her to one of the beds and spend hours raping, torturing, and eventually killing her. Once done with the girl, he'd wrap them in a white sheet and toss them into the river, where they would be discovered days, sometimes weeks later. Over the four years that Murdoch did his thing, twenty-three girls had gone missing. A college security guard had caught Murdoch on the campus one night when he'd gone to catch his prey and was able to tell police what he looked like. The cops knew Murdoch and knew that he lived in the old asylum. They conducted a raid on the asylum the night the last victim went missing. Murdoch was killed trying to escape and the girl had been dead before the cops could get to her. The girl that had pushed Julie down the stairs had probably done it to save her. The female ghost was one of the girls Murdoch had killed. Even in death, Murdoch was killing any person that came into the asylum and the girl was trying to save them.

"Bingo." Julie said in a disheartened voice. She thought figuring out who they were dealing with would help but it didn't.

"What is it?" Sam asked looking away from his computer screen with a slightly relieved look on his face.

"His name is Silas Murdoch." Sam narrowed his eyes in confusion.

"I know that name." Julie nodded her head.

"You probably do. He was a serial killer from the 1970's. He killed twenty-three girls inside that asylum before police stopped him."

"Let me guess, he died in the asylum." Sam said with an oh shit smile on his face. Julie sighed and nodded her head. "So, Murdoch was the guy trying to kill you but who was the girl?" Julie shrugged.

"I'm assuming one of his victims."

"But why would she want to hurt you?" Sam asked in confusion.

"I'm betting she didn't. I think she pushed me down the stairs to save me."

"Might have been less painful if she'd just yelled watch out or something." Sam reasoned. Julie nodded her head. "So, where's Murdoch buried?" Julie looked down the page and sighed before sending Sam a smile that said in a sarcastic way that this was just super. "Let me guess, cremated?" Julie nodded her head.

"Is it just me or does it seem like there's no such thing as a simple salt and burn anymore?" Julie asked in an annoyed tone.

"So how do we get rid of a ghost with no remains?" Sam asked.

"Well, he was shot inside the asylum. If the asylum wasn't in use they may not have cleaned up the blood." Sam sighed.

"The article wouldn't happen to mention what room he died in, would it?" Sam asked hopefully. Julie smiled and shook her head. "Of course not."

"Did you really think our luck would change now?" She asked him. He smiled and shook his head.

"So, we need to search every room?" Sam asked.

"We could try checking the police records but I'm betting that information was never documented." Sam nodded.

"We can check it out tomorrow." Julie smiled and shook her head.

"No, Dean can check it out tomorrow." Sam smiled.

"What will we do while he's there?" Julie thought about it.

"I think we should sleep in."

_**THE NEXT MORNING**_

"Black or should I got for some color?" Julie asked as she held up a black AC/DC t-shirt and then a plain red t-shirt. "Who am I kidding?" Julie asked her reflection with a smile. She tossed the red t-shirt back into bag and then pulled off her tank top and replaced it with the black AC/DC t-shirt. She was wearing a pair of ripped up blue jeans that she tucked into her black combat boots. Julie straightened her hair, which took a little longer than she would have liked and then followed that up with applying her makeup. She went heavy on the eyeliner and mascara because it made her feel more confident and since this bastard of a ghost had already tried to kill her twice she felt she needed a confidence boost. Thankfully last night she'd managed to go to bed pretty early, if you consider 2 Am early, and had gotten to sleep until 10. She'd had no dreams and had woken up feeling more awake than she had in a long time. It was the rare night when she actually got to sleep straight through the night and even more rare when she didn't have a dream about Claire. Whenever he didn't dream about Claire she woke up feeling a little bit more alive and not quite so depressed. That didn't mean she wanted the dreams to go away permanently though. They were the only way she got to see Claire and she wasn't ready to give them up.

Once she was dressed she went through the ritual of packing up. Her plan was to crash here again tonight but just in case something went wrong Julie always like to be completely packed. That way she could just drive out of town and not have to worry about whether or not she had enough panties. Once all her stuff was in the bag, including her weapons, she started getting everything ready. She made sure she had plenty of rounds of shotgun shells filled with rock salt and her pure iron knife handy. Julie didn't want to go anywhere without her shotgun but sometimes, like last night, the shotgun can't always be handy. Which means a person needs to have a backup plan. The iron knife was her backup plan. Pure iron dissipates ghosts, which would give her time to get to her shotgun, hopefully. She loaded her shotgun up so she wouldn't have to later and then filled her small travel sized salt container with salt and shoved it in her boot. Julie made sure she had the essentials on her at all times. Salt repelled ghosts and demons. It was a highly useful mineral. She also filled her flask with holy water and shoved it into the pocket of her motorcycle jacket. She was just putting everything away when there was a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" She yelled.

"Dean!"

"Come on in!' She yelled back. The door was opened a second later and Dean and Sam came walking in. She smiled at the boys. "How was the police station?" Julie asked Dean with a sunny smile on her face. He glared at her before sitting down at the table.

"Delightful." He said sarcastically. "Tell me again why I had to go by myself."

"Because you're the incorrigible horn dog that had to get laid by not one but two girls last night." Dean smiled fondly as he remembered.

"Yeah, and it was so worth it." Julie rolled her eyes.

"Dean, can you please focus?" Sam asked his brother in an annoyed tone. Dean shook his head and grabbed the folder he'd brought in off the table.

"No record of what room he was shot in but they took some photos."

"Can I see those?" Julie asked walking closer to him. He handed her the folder. She took it and sat on the bed as she looked through the photos.

"The guy at the station said that most of the file had been thrown away since the case was more than thirty years old." Dean said.

"Did they give you anything that might be useful?" Sam asked. Dean thought for a moment before shaking his head. "Any luck with the photos?" Julie looked up at the question for a moment before shrugging and looking back down.

"Almost every room in that place looks exactly the same." She said in frustration. "But…" She said in a confused tone as she looked at a picture. "This table…" She pointed out a metal table to both of the guys. "It wasn't in any of the rooms that I went in. It looks like an old operating table."

"Operating table?" Sam said taking the picture. "They didn't do surgeries there." Julie nodded her head.

"And unlike almost every other room in that place, this one has no windows."

"So, it's got to be the basement, right?" Dean asked. Julie sighed and nodded her head. "That's just peachy. We're going to go to the freaking basement where the only escape is one floor above us."

"This should be fun." She said sarcastically. "Once we're done there, how are we going to burn the blood?"

"We'll have to cover the floor with lighter fluid." Sam said.

"We could burn the whole place down." Julie pointed out. Both Sam and Dean nodded their heads.

"We'll just have to be very careful." Dean said. Julie sighed.

"Coming from you that isn't really inspiring confidence." She said. Dean glared at her.

"Yeah, look who's talking." He shot at her.

_**BACK AT THE ASYLUM**_

Julie put her truck in park outside of the old asylum and let out a weary sigh as she looked up at it. It was just another hunt. It was just another ghost that needed to be killed. It was just another day in her life. But it wasn't just like any other hunt, or at least it wasn't like any other hunt that she'd been on over the past four years. Tonight she wasn't hunting alone. Tonight she had Sam and Dean by her side. She'd gotten so used to being on her own that she'd almost forgotten what it was like to have someone else fighting at her side. Before Claire's death, Julie had hunted alone but she'd always had Claire to go home to. Then she'd hunted with Dean. The two had made a great team. They were both crazy but they both cared enough about the other to not let things get too far. They'd had each other's backs, like partners were supposed to do. Since Claire died, Julie had gotten so used to being by herself and rarely ever even talking to another person about the hunt that she'd forgotten what it was like to know she didn't have to face something alone. Of course, working with another person presented the problem of what would she do if something happened to that other person but it was just one case she reminded herself. They'd kill Murdoch and tomorrow morning Julie would drive out of town and never see the Winchesters again. It was just easier that way. Julie grabbed her shotgun and bag of extra weapons just in case and got out of the truck.

"You ready?" Dean asked her walking from his Impala over to her. Julie looked at him and nodded her head without smiling. "You seem nervous." He said in a slightly teasing voice. Julie rolled her eyes and knocked into him hard enough to make him wobble. He chuckled.

"Where's Sam?"

"Filling a few more shells just in case we need them." Julie nodded. "Are you sure you're okay?" Dean asked. Julie looked over at him and smiled again.

"Of course. Why wouldn't I be?" She asked in a manner that she hoped expressed how okay she wanted to be.

"I don't know. You just used to get a little more hyped up before a hunt, that's all."

"Dean, I was twenty. I thought killing ghosts was the epitome of awesome. I'm not that person anymore." He nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, I know. I was just checking."

"You don't need to worry about me, Dean." Julie insisted. "I can take care of myself."

"I know you can but I do worry about you." He admitted. Julie smiled.

"Since when?"

"I'm serious, Lou." Dean said in a serious tone, which wiped Julie's smile off her face. "I haven't heard from you since…" He left the sentence hanging. Julie sighed.

"I know." She said with a sad note in her voice. "I sort of cut myself off from the rest of the world after…you know" Julie couldn't bring herself to say the words. "It was just easier, I guess."

"I wanted to be there for you. I mean, I tired but…"

"I know you did." Julie said cutting him off. She smiled at him sadly. "Dean, being around you reminded me too much of that night. It still does." She admitted. Dean looked at the ground so Julie wouldn't see the sad look on his face at those words. "This was easier" He nodded still not looking at her. "Don't get me wrong, it's been nice working with you again." She said with a smile. He looked up with a smile on his face. "But…" She said with a sigh and a sad look on her face. "It's just one hunt, Dean. In the morning we'll go our separate ways." He stopped smiling and nodded his head.

"You'll call me or Sam if you get into trouble though, won't you?" Julie smiled.

"Only if I absolutely cannot get myself out of it first." Dean chuckled.

"You always were a giant pain in the ass." Julie smiled and nodded.

"Yeah, but you're the same way." Julie pointed out.

"Are we ready?" Sam asked coming up to the two of them. Julie turned to him and nodded, as did Dean. "Let's do it." Sam said with a sigh.

The three of them, loaded down with an arsenal of weapons, walked up to the gate that kept the general public out of the asylum and climbed over the top. Sam first, then the bags, then Julie, and then Dean. It was dark out now and that meant that whatever ghosts were about would be active. They didn't want to go during the day because there were houses near the asylum and they didn't want to risk cops interfering. Despite having already been inside the asylum, when Julie saw the building again her stomach gave a nervous flutter. Ghosts, vampires, demons, and other monsters didn't scare her. No, what scared her was the anticipation of seeing something. You never knew where it was going to pop up but you knew it was going to. It would either be behind you or behind the closed shower curtain. This asylum was the epitome of everything creepy to Julie. It was dark and she knew it was haunted. She knew there were ghosts and she knew those ghosts were going to pop out of nowhere whenever they damn well wanted to and at least one of them was going to try and kill her. There was nothing like anticipation to increase a person's heart rate and blood pressure. She only hoped that she wasn't the one getting tossed about like a ragdoll tonight. Let the men be chivalrous and take one for the team.

All of them walked through the halls in silence. Julie, who had explored most of the hospital, except for the basement, the night before knew where the stairs were. She led the group. She kept her shotgun out and ready so she could shoot at a moment's notice. Unlike most girls, Julie refused to wear shoes that made noises. That would only announce her arrival and get her killed. They didn't encounter anything as they walked down the hall. Sam and Dean checked some rooms as they passed up but nothing jumped out and said boo. The closest they came was when Julie almost shot a rat because it rattled some paper and then scurried quickly across the floor. Julie did not do rats. Vampires, ghosts, werewolves, bring em' on but put her in the same room as a rat or a snake outside it's cage and you would reduce her to a quivering pile of uselessness. Julie's nerves were pretty frazzled by the time they reached the stairs that led to the basement. She'd been expecting something to pop out each time she passed a doorway or rounded a corner. This nothingness was starting to lull her into a false sense of security, which made her even more anxious. She hated when ghosts waited to attack. Just get it over with already.

Once they reached the stairs, Dean took the lead and Sam made sure to stay behind her. Julie realized they were placing her in the middle, which was the safest place to be. Julie knew that they didn't do this because they didn't trust her abilities. They did it in an unconscious effort to protect her. Dean had always done it. Whenever they had to enter a room, Dean would go first. If something rattled from inside an enclosed area, Dean opened it. It was the way they were raised. They were raised to protect women and Julie fell into that category unequivocally. She didn't really mind though. It just meant that they'd both have to die before she would. So, they made their way silently down the stairs. The silence was almost oppressive as they all listened for any sound that might indicate the arrival of the ghost. Ideally they would want to keep their flashlights off but it was very, very dark in the asylum and as they went downstairs into the basement it only got darker. The flashlights were necessary if they were going to see anything. The basement was two flights of stairs below the rest of the hospital. In all of her research Julie had been unable to find out what the basement was used for. She assumed it was mainly used for storage when the hospital was open, or perhaps a cafeteria like setting for the patients.

The three kept to the wall so as not to leave their backs totally exposed and slowly made their way through the halls of the basement. The basement was all concrete and that included the walls and ceiling. The halls were also much more narrow and seemed like they were from some bad horror movie. Julie's heart started racing a little bit faster the further they went to the basement. Murdoch knew they were there already. He also was not going to let them get too close to the crime scene He had to know why they were there. He had to know they were here to kill him. Julie, being in the middle, checked inside each room to see if it was the right one. It had been thirty minutes in the basement and countless rooms down before she found the right one. She knew it was the room because the metal table was right where it had been in the pictures and there was a deep red stain all over the floor. It looked like the cops let Murdoch bleed out almost all of his blood and hadn't bothered to try and save him. Julie couldn't really blame them since she probably would have done the same thing. The room looked exactly like the pictures. The only difference was no girl was on the table and Murdoch's body wasn't laying on the concrete.

"This is it." Julie said.

"You sure?" Dean said poking his head into the room. Julie glared at him.

"It's either the right room or someone else decorated the floor with their blood at some point." She snapped. Sam smiled at her comment and Dean rolled her eyes. "Let's just do this, please." She said looking around on edge. Murdoch should have attack by now.

"The way you're acting, it's like you've never hunted a ghost before." Dean said as he pulled the lighter fluid from her bag.

"I just don't like that we've been here for almost an hour now and still no sign of the bastard."

"Maybe this is his way of saying he's sorry." Dean said in a sarcastic voice. Julie rolled her eyes and turned to face Dean.

"Or maybe he's standing behind you." She said pointing behind him.

"What?" Dean exclaimed before quickly turning around and seeing Murdoch standing behind him. "Jesus!" He exclaimed.

"Duck!" Julie screamed and as soon as he had ducked, Julie fired off a shot from the shotgun. The ghost instantly disappeared.

"You had to complain." Dean snapped at her. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah because that….oh my god!" Julie yelled as Murdoch grabbed her from behind and tossed her out into the hall. She landed against wall, once again and hit her head very hard. She heard a blast from Sam's shotgun. Dean quickly rushed over to her. He grabbed her by the hands and helped her up.

"You okay?" He asked. Julie nodded and rubbed the back of her head.

"If that bastard throws me one more time I'm going to more than just kill his ass." Julie promised as the two made their way back into the room with Sam. Sam was emptying a thing of lighter fluid onto the floor as they spoke. "Where the hell is my shotgun?" Julie asked looking around. "Dean, have you seen my…behind you!" She yelled. Dean was pushed back against the wall and the ghost put its hand around his neck. "Damn it, where is it?" Julie exclaimed looking around. Sighing she pulled out her knife and ran at the ghost. Just as she was going to stab the ghost he turned and with a flick of his wrist sent her flying backward on her ass. "Ouch." She said just as Sam fired another shot from his shotgun.

"Jules, you okay?" Sam asked Julie nodded. "Dean?" Sam called in his brother's direction.

"Peachy." Dean said standing up. "Sam, you do the burning. Julie and I will keep him busy."

"We will?" Julie asked and then got a glare from Dean. She rolled her eyes. "Just make it fast, Sammy. And give me your shotgun." Sam tossed his shotgun to Julie, who caught I, and quickly reloaded it. The ghost appeared again right in front of Julie as she was in the final stage of reloading her gun, so Dean shot him. Julie quickly snapped the barrel of the shotgun in place and looked around again. Murdoch popped up behind Julie and sent her flying back out into the hall, where she hit the opposite wall with her face. She turned back around and saw the ghost beating the hell out of Dean. She took aim with her shotgun and fired off a round.

"Okay, let's go!" Sam said urgently. Dean and Sam, carrying their bags rushed out of the room. Just as Murdoch reappeared Sam dropped a lit book of matches onto the ground and the room went up in flames. Julie watched in pleasure as Murdoch himself burned up. After a few seconds, Julie slapped Sam on the arm as hard as her beat up body would allow her. "What was that for?" Sam asked rubbing his arm with an offended look on his face.

"Taking your sweet ass time." She told him.

"Let's just get out of here." Dean said with a smile.

"Do you think the ghost of the girl has moved on?"Julie asked as they walked up the stairs.

"Why don't you ask her yourself?" Sam said pointing in front of them. Julie looked up and saw the same pretty, blonde hair girl standing in front of her. The girl smiled and nodded her head as she mouthed the words thank you just before disappearing in bright white light.

"So, this wasn't a complete waste of our time." Julie mused a few seconds later. The three left the asylum as silently as they had entered it. Only once they were back out to their cars did they talk.

"You heading back to the motel or leaving town?" Dean asked Julie. Julie smiled.

"I think I'm going to head out. There's this thing up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa that might require some attention." Dean nodded.

"Or we could take off in the morning and work the case together." Dean volunteered. Julie sighed.

"I told you. This was just a onetime thing." Julie said. Dean sighed and nodded.

"Just don't let it be another four years before I hear from you again." He said. Julie smiled and nodded her head. "Stay safe."

"Can't keep a big dog down, Dean" Julie said with a cocky smile as she tossed her bag into the bed of her car. "See ya." She climbing behind the wheel and cranking the wheel over. Both boys waved as Julie drove away. Dean sighed when they could no longer see her taillights.

"This is really bothering you, isn't it?" Sam asked his brother in shock.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Dean insisted. Sam rolled his eyes and got into the passenger side of the Impala as Dean got behind the wheel.

"You're worried about her." Sam said.

"Julie isn't the type of girl you have to worry about Sam. She can take care of herself." Sam nodded.

"But you're still worried." Dean rolled his eyes.

"Why is that little brothers have to be such a pain in the ass?"

"Probably for the same reasons that big brothers have to be such insufferable know it alls." Sam shot back.

"Bitch." Dean snapped.

"Jerk." Sam replied with a knowing smile.


	2. Chapter 2

"You better shape up because I need a man and my heart is set on you. You better shape up, you better understand, to my heart I must be true…" Julie sang along with one of the most annoyingly catchy show tunes of all time. Julie hadn't even liked the damn movie. The only thing she remembered about the stupid thing was the damn song at the end. Unfortunately the song was one of those things you just were not able to forget until you were dead and even then Julie had her suspicions that God might be an Olivia Newton John fan and force you to listen to it each morning. "Sorry John Travolta." Julie said as she switched the radio off. She sat in silence for a few minutes but then realized that it wasn't really silent because she was humming the song under her breath. That's the bad thing about catchy songs. Once they're in your head they don't go anywhere. They sit up there festering until another catchy song pushes the original one out of the way or until you well and truly distract yourself from it. In hopes of riding the obnoxiously peppy and cheery song from her head, Julie found the first Metallica CD she could and put it in.

Halfway through "Master of Puppets" Julie realized she wasn't singing the lyrics to that song and she was in fact singing "You're the One That I Want" to the beat of "Master of Puppets." She wasn't even sure how that worked. "Son of a bitch." Julie complained as she jammed the off button on the music. Julie racked her brain trying to come up with a suitable alternative to the song currently plaguing her brain. She tried singing pretty much every single one of Britney Spears' number one hits and none of them stuck. She tried singing "Singin' in the Rain" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" but nothing was working. The song just stuck. And once she realized it was stuck, she turned her CD back on and tried to focus on anything else to keep herself from singing. Maybe if she distracted herself she'd forget about the stupid song and never sing it ever again.

That's who her mind ended up on Dean Winchester. Seeing Dean had been painful, which she'd known it would be. That's why she'd avoided even having so much as a conversation with him since Claire's death. He'd been there the night Claire had died. He was the one that had picked Julie up off the bathroom floor and laid her on the bed so he could call the cops. He was the one who got the room clean of any weapons or anything else the cops might try to use to pin Claire's death on either one of them. He was the one that had told the cops what had happened. He'd taken care of everything while Julie laid on the bed, staring blankly at the wall, not making a sound or moving an inch. The only thing Julie remembered about that night other than the way Claire had looked and feelings she'd felt was how Dean had taken care of everything. He didn't have to do that. Claire was Julie's sister, not his. He could have packed his bags and left but he hadn't. He had stayed. He was the one that sat up all night with Julie. He was the one that had been there for her to cry on when she'd finally gone from shocked and numb to ripped apart inside. He was the one that held her hand when the mortuary had handed Julie the urn that was all that held all that was left of her sister. If Dean hadn't been there during that time, Julie never would have made it through. But because he'd been there it hurt to be around him. He reminded her of everything that had happened and reminded her a time when things were better. He reminded Julie of Claire and even though it had been four years since her sister had died, Julie wasn't anywhere near over it. She still refused to think about Claire.

Experiencing pain as a result of seeing Dean was what Julie had expected. The thing that had shocked her was that, while she did feel pain, it was nowhere near as painful as she thought it would be. The more dominant feeling she'd felt was happiness. Dean had been such a big part of her life. He'd been her partner, her best friend, and the one person she'd always been able to count on to tell her exactly how it was. She'd missed him. Telling him that she was going to take the Cedar Rapids gig on her own had been something she hadn't wanted to do. And then there was Sam. She had so enjoyed seeing Sam again. She hadn't seen Sam for probably eight years. They'd never been as close as her and Dean had been but Sam had been one of the people in Julie's life that hadn't just disappeared. She didn't just meet him once and never see him again. She had actually wanted to say yes when Dean offered to work the case with her. She'd wanted to spend just a few more days catching up with Dean and getting to know Sam. Now that she was away from them, she missed them but she was able to see it was all for the best. Getting close to people only gave you more people to lose. After Claire, Julie couldn't stand to lose anyone else.

"Are you just going to serenade me all night?" A voice asked Julie from the passenger seat. Julie jumped about a foot in the air.

"Oh my god!" Julie's arms automatically made a jerking motion, which made the car swerve into oncoming traffic. After getting back in her lane Julie quickly looked to her right and sighed. "Dear God, Ruby, are you trying to kill me?" The petite blonde sitting next to her smiled and chuckled a little. "How the hell did you get in my car anyway?"

"A girl's gotta have her secrets." Ruby said vaguely. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Girl?" She challenged. Ruby sighed and looked at Julie with a come on get real look.

"Fine, demon, whatever." See, Ruby was a demon. About three months back she just popped up out of nowhere while Julie was getting her ass kicked by a vampire and magically killed the vampire with this little knife she never let out of her sight. She tried to disappear into the night without any answers but Julie managed to kick her ass enough that she stuck around long enough to tell Julie what she was. A month later she popped up again and after Julie threatening to shoot her with a squirt gun filled with holy water, she told Julie that she was helping her because she wasn't like other demons. Since then the two had formed not so much a friendship but somewhat of a you scratch my back I'll scratch yours arrangement. "How'd the hunt go?" Ruby asked conversationally. Julie sighed.

"Got my ass kicked but we got the job done."

"We?" Ruby asked. Julie nodded her head.

"I met up with a few old friends."

"Anyone I would know?"

"Probably since the entire demonic world seems to know who the Winchesters are."

"Wow." Ruby said and then smiled. "You're right about one thing. Everyone knows who the Winchesters are." Julie nodded. "So, are they going to help you out with the gig in Cedar Rapids?" Julie shook her head. "Why not? You may need some help." Julie sighed.

"It was just a onetime thing. We just happened to be working the same case."

"You should never turn down help." Ruby reasoned.

"Whatever it is I can handle it."

"And if you can't? What if it's really dangerous and you…?"

"Ruby, just drop it." Julie said in a hard voice. Ruby sighed.

"Fine, but if you get your ass killed don't come crying to me." Julie rolled her eyes.

"Your concern is heartwarming, really." Julie said sarcastically. "Besides if you would just stick around and stop disappearing all the damn time I'd have all the help I needed."

"I got other things to do with my time, baby cakes."

"What does that mean?"

"I'll see you in Cedar Rapids." Ruby snapped and then disappeared. Julie sighed.

"Demons are so freaking temperamental." Julie said to herself.

Ruby made it a point to disappear and reappear in Julie's life whenever she decided she wanted to. There was no rhyme or reason to when she'd show up and she couldn't be counted upon in a crisis. Julie had tried hating her but it was really hard to hate a person who did nothing but try to save you. Logically she knew that Ruby was a demon and therefore could not be trusted but it was really hard to take her seriously as a demon when she never acted like a demon. Julie had pretty much decided that as long as Ruby was an asset she'd use her but as soon as she even got the slightest feeling that Ruby was double crossing her or using her for some demonic end, Julie would not bother exorcising her. She'd steal the demon killing knife that she knew Ruby kept on her at all times and she'd gut her like a fish. Julie liked Ruby and hoped that Ruby was exactly what she seemed to be but if she wasn't, Julie would not hesitate in killing her. Trust in this life was not something given out readily and it was something that was easily destroyed. Julie felt pretty sure that she trusted Ruby but only to an extent. She wasn't about to trust a demon fully, no matter how many times that demon saved her ass.

Julie had been on the road for about an hour and a half before she realized anything was wrong. She'd been on her third repetition of "TNT" by AC/DC when she realized that the car in her rearview mirror had been there for the past forty-five minutes and over those forty-five minutes it had slowly gotten closer and closer. It was like whoever was drying wanted to keep Julie in their sights but didn't want her to realize they were there. It had worked, obviously, since it had taken her so long to realize they were there. If her father had been in the car with her he would have called her a fool and wondered why she ever thought she could hack it in this life. Julie looked onto the floorboard of the truck and found her bag of weapons. Keeping one eye on the road she reached down and brought the bag onto her seat. With one hand on the wheel she started routing through her bag until she found something that would be useful. She found her 9 millimeter and tucked it into the mild counsel and then found a pure silver knife. The knife would work against a shapeshifter. The gun wouldn't really be that much use against anything since very few supernatural things can be killed with a bullet, unless of course it was a silver bullet and then that would work on a werewolf and a shapeshifter.

She kept her eyes on the road and on the rearview mirror at all times. The car got closer and closer and as it did Julie's heart started beating faster and faster. Very few times in her life had she been hunted by something or someone. It was unnerving. Now she sort of understood why supernatural creatures kicked her ass so damn bad whenever they knew she was going to kill them. She was white knuckling the steering wheel when the guy got to be about fifteen feet behind her. Her heart raced a little bit and she wondered what she would do if they just kept following her. Suddenly the guy sped up so that he was right on her bumper and then quickly came up on the side of her. Her heart beat faster and faster the until she looked over and saw a man talking on his cell phone. He sped up a little more and finishing passing her. As soon as he was in front of her let out a sigh of relief and leaned her head back slightly against the headrest. She'd thought for sure the guy was following her. One of the main characteristics of a hunter was their paranoia. Julie was more paranoid than your every day person but definitely not the most paranoid hunter out there. That title fell on her father's shoulder.

Suddenly the man in the car in front of her slammed on his breaks, which caused Julie to slam on her breaks. She saw the car coming at her faster and faster. At the last moment when she saw she was going to hit the car she said a loud cussword and swerved the car so she was going off the right side of the road. Now the road had about a five and a half foot ditch on each side of the road. Julie felt the car going down the ditch as her head lolled back and forth. That's when she saw the tree. "Oh shit!" Julie screamed just before she hit the tree. She was forcefully thrown forward until her seatbelt caught and a second later the airbag deployed. She lost consciousness shortly after that.

_**DEAN/SAM**_

"I'm on the highway to hell…" Dean sang along with the radio. He found this song very fitting since he was in fact on the highway and he was going to hell in less than a year. He'd never second guessed his decision to trade his soul for Sammy's life. It had only been a week and that week had helped him to realize he did the right thing. Sam was what was important, or at least in his eyes. Life without Sam had nearly killed Dean and he'd only had to endure it for a few days. He'd hoped that when he'd made the deal he'd get ten years out of it and had almost reconsidered when the demon offered him only one but then he imagined living the rest of his life without his little brother and that had been enough to change his mind. He'd made the deal and he wasn't going to look back. He wasn't going to try and get out of it because if he did, Sammy died. Besides, knowing he was going to be checking out in less than a year made him feel so much more free than he ever thought possible. He slept with who he wanted, ate what he wanted, and did anything he wanted without worrying about the consequences. He was going to be gone in a year anyway. Sam was still trying to find a way to save him but Dean knew he wouldn't find a way to save him that wouldn't result in the terms of the deal being violated, which meant Sam would die. Dean didn't know how Julie had survived the past four years without Claire because he knew he would have killed himself a long time ago.

"Can we listen to something else?" Sam snapped a few minutes later turning the volume down.

"It's AC/DC man. It's a classic." Dean said in a defensive tone. Sam nodded his head.

"Yeah and it does nothing but remind me that in less than one year you'll be dead and in hell." Dean sighed and turned the music off. "Thank you." Sam said in an exasperated tone.

"I take it you're not having any luck finding me a way out of this deal." Dean concluded. Sam sighed and shook his head. "Then maybe there isn't a way out."

"Of course there's a way out, Dean. I just have to find it." Sam said in an annoyed tone. Dean sighed.

"Would it do me any good to ask you to stop looking?" Sam shook his head. "Why not?"

"Because…" He said in a quiet voice before sighing. "I have to save you, Dean. I have to." Dean decided to drop it mainly because he'd heard the pain his brother's voice but also because his cell phone started ringing. He dug the phone out of his pocket and looked at the screen with an odd look on his face. It wasn't a number that he knew.

"Hello?" He answered quickly. "What hospital?" He asked in an urgent tone thirty seconds later. "I'll be there in a few hours." He hung up. He was silent for a full minute as Sam stared at his brother in confusion. "Son of a bitch." Dean finally snapped before punching the steering wheel three times to try and vent out some anger.

"Dean!" Sam yelled trying to get his brother to focus. "Calm down!" Dean stopped punching the steering wheel but had a really pained/pissed off look on his face. "Who was that?"

"Coleman County Police Department." Dean said simply. "Julie was in an accident."

"Is she okay?" Sam asked urgently. Dean sighed.

"They said they didn't know. All they knew was that she was in an accident and being treated at Mercy Medical Center."

"Well did they say she was at least alive?" Dean nodded. "Okay, then we need to stay calm. It might just be a few stitches."

"Yeah, you're right." Dean agreed a moment later with a sigh.

"Do you want me to drive?" Sam asked. Dean shook his head.

"I can get us there faster." And as he said it he sped up.

_**AT THE HOSPITAL**_

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Audrey Monroe's room." Dean said going up to the nurses' station. Without even looking up the nurse told him to wait a moment by holding up her pointer finger. "No, I will not wait a moment." Dean snapped. The nurse looked up at him with a wide eyed look that said she was not only surprised at his outburst but pissed off about it. Dean sighed and forced himself to speak calmer this time. "I'm sorry but I need to find Audrey Monroe." The nurse looked at him for a full fifteen seconds before sighing and telling him to wait a moment. She walked over to a computer and punched a few buttons while Dean stayed at the counter tapping his foot and looking very, very uneasy. Sam stood behind him ready to grab his brother should Dean make any attempt to lash out physically at someone. Sam had never seen Dean like this. He was jumpy and quickly angered. It was disconcerting but kind of comforting at the same time. Sam had always just thought Dean was unable to make connections, or at least lasting connections with anyone outside of the family. Clearly Sam had been wrong. The nurse walked back over a few seconds later and appraised the men standing before her.

"Are you family?" She asked. The way in which she asked the question implied if they weren't they could get lost.

"I'm her…husband." Dean only slightly choked on the word husband, which made it halfway believable. The nurse eyed Sam. "This is Audrey's older brother, Sam." Dean said pointing to his brother. The nurse eyed them suspiciously before sighing.

"Very well. She's being treated up on four, room 4219." The boys nodded. "Take those elevators down there up to four and follow the signs for the ICU." Dean nodded and started to run off before it occurred to him.

"ICU?" He asked in a confused voice. The nurse's hard look softened as she nodded her head.

"Your wife sustained an injury in the accident that required surgery. Dr. Gorman will be able to explain everything." Instead of the hard annoyed voice the nurse had been using before she said this in a soft, I'm sorry kind of voice. Dean nodded.

"Thank you." And he walked off with Sam trailing behind him. Dean's heart was racing as they waited for the elevator.

"You need to calm down Dean." Sam said in a delicate voice. Dean glared at his brother.

"Do not tell me to calm down, Sammy." He practically yelled. Sam sighed and hated himself for what he was about to do.

"You're too emotional." Sam said in an urgent voice. "We need to be careful not to draw attention to ourselves. We're both still wanted fugitives and any suspicions we arise might come back to bite us in the ass." Dean still glared. "I know you're worried but you won't do Julie any good from in prison." After a moment Dean sighed, looked down at the ground, and nodded.

"You're right." He admitted to his little brother. Sam sighed in relief. "I'm just really worried. I mean, the ICU?" Dean asked.

"I'm sure it's just a precaution. Every time someone gets out of surgery they stay in the ICU until the anesthesia wears off."

"But they said surgery, Sam. That can't be good."

"As long as the surgery was successful it might be nothing." Sam responded as they stepped onto the elevator. "Why does she use Audrey Monroe for an alias?" Dean actually smiled a little.

"Julie's two favorite actresses were always Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe. It would either have been Audrey Monroe or Marilyn Hepburn and she always liked the name Audrey more."

"You guys were really close." Sam said. It wasn't a question but Dean nodded as the elevator doors opened. The two made their way to room 4219 and walked in. A man in a lab coat was making notes on his clipboard as they came in. He looked up at them with a quizzical look on his face.

"I'm Dean Monroe, Audrey's husband." Dean said by way of introduction. "This is Audrey's brother, Sam." The man smiled

"I'm Dr. Gorman. I'm the one that has been treating Audrey since she got her nine hours ago." Dean nodded.

"Is she okay?" He asked unsure if he wanted the answer. The doctor sighed.

"Your wife came in with numerous contusions and lacerations. Most were minor. However, in the accident she sustained injuries to her abdomen, which caused her spleen to rupture. We were forced to go in surgically to repair it. The surgery was a success."

"So, she's okay?" Dean asked hopefully.

"She also experienced a head trauma in the accident. She had what is called and Epidural Hematoma, which means an artery in her brain ruptured when her head hit the windshield. We were able to repair the rupture in surgery. All we can do now is monitor her vitals and wait for her to wake up. Given her age, she has a very high chance of pulling through this." The doctor said comfortingly. Dean was so floored by the information that he couldn't respond.

"Thank you, doctor." Sam said when he realized Dean wasn't up for answering. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

"Just talk to her. Sometimes the thing that pulls a patient through is hearing her loved ones voices." Sam nodded.

Dean looked from the floor up to the bed and for the first time really looked at her. Her skin was deathly pale, her head was bandaged up pretty extensively, there were tubes coming from everywhere, and machines all around her. Her eyes were closed and her eyelids looked like blue bruises. She looked so small and like she was already dead. Dean had never known Julie to seem so vulnerable. She looked like one small thing would finish her off. It hurt to see her like that. All he could think about was what would happen if she never woke up. He couldn't imagine being a world where someone like Julie didn't exist. She may seem like a hard ass to most other people but Dean knew better. He knew that Julie cared more about the world than anything else. She put everyone else before her and would never have hesitated to help someone she barely knew out. She was everything that was right with the world and a world where she was no longer alive was a world Dean would happily leave.

"You had to cut her hair." Dean said suddenly when he realized the truth. The doctor and Sam, who had been having a conversation, stopped talking and looking at Dean oddly. "She's going to be pissed when she wakes up." Dean told the doctor with a humorless smile when he turned back to face the two. The doctor's curious look turned to a sympathetic smile.

"We had to in order to get access to the area." The doctor explained. Dean nodded. "It will grow back." Dean nodded again. "I need to check on some of my other patients. The nurses have my direct number if you need anything." Dean nodded.

"Thank you." Sam told the doctor as he left the room. Dean moved so he was sitting in the chair by the bed. "The doctor is really optimistic about her prognosis." Dean told his brother in a positive light. Dean nodded.

_**FOUR DAYS LATER**_

It had been four days since the accident and there had been no change. Julie was still in stable condition but nothing had changed, for the good or bad. The doctor kept telling Sam and Dean that this was good but Sam knew otherwise. No change wasn't always good news. They were looking for improvement. Sam of course never said anything to Dean or the doctor about this because Dean was already on edge. He'd barely left her room. He only left to use the bathroom, get food, and to take a shower at the motel Sam had gotten for the two of them. If he wasn't doing one of those things he was sitting in the chair by Julie's bed. He barely talked no matter what Sam said. He barely moved. Sam had realized that Dean cared for Julie but he'd never imagined how much. All Sam could do was pray that Julie pulled through this because he doubted Dean would be okay if she didn't.

Dean was getting through everything by not thinking about what had happened or what was going to happen. He had Sam deal with all the doctors and cops. All the cops knew was that Julie had crashed into a tree headfirst. A 911 call came in around 4:30AM from what sounded like a young female. When the cops got to the scene they found no one there but Julie was on the side of the road and her truck was up in flames. Someone had gotten Julie out of the truck and taken her bag of clothes out as well. Either her bag of weapons was still in the truck or the person who had dragged her out of the truck had taken them. The call had come through on Julie's phone, which meant the cops had no leads on who placed the call. Judging by the skid marks the cops knew that there had been two cars on the road that night. They assumed Julie slammed on her breaks to avoid hitting a deer maybe and the person behind her did the same thing. Then the person behind her placed the 911 call and for some reason drove off. The only other explanation was that Julie had been behind some other car. That car slammed on their breaks and Julie ended up going off the road to avoid a collision. Either way, until Julie woke up no one was going to know what had happened out there.

Sam had just gotten back after going for coffee and saw that Dean was still in the chair, looking at Julie. He set the cut of coffee down on the small table next to Dean and then took his place back at the window ledge, where he'd spent most of his time. Sam looked over at Julie and sighed. The machines beeped same as usual. Her chest rose and fell with each breath the ventilator she was wearing forced her to take. The rest of her body didn't move even a fraction of an inch. She looked just as cold and just as dead as she always did. It was hard for Sam to believe that Julie could possibly be alive because she looked anything but that. The Winchesters and Coopers had crossed paths probably seven or eight times when the kids were younger and Sam had always gotten on great with Julie. She kept Dean from picking on his little brother too horrible, even though she was younger than him. She'd been the closest thing he'd ever had to a friend as a kid. He hadn't talk to her since he was eighteen and he'd never really considered the idea that he might miss her. Now, looking at her in the hospital bed after just having seen her so alive the day before, he realized he did. She didn't deserve this. He just didn't know how to help.

"Dean, maybe you should go back to the motel and get a few hours of sleep." Sam said in a concerned, non-judgmental voice. "I'll call you if there's any change." He promised his brother. Dean looked away from Julie and up at Dean before shaking his head.

"I caught a few hours of sleep throughout the night." Sam sighed because he knew that was a lie. "I want to be here if things…change." By change, Sam knew he meant if Julie died or if she woke up.

"At the very least go get something to eat in the cafeteria. The nurse told me they have excellent cheeseburgers."

"I'm not hungry." Dean insisted.

"I know you are, Dean. You've barely eaten anything over the past four days." Sam reasoned.

"I said I'm not hungry!" Dean snapped in a slightly raised voice.

"And I said that I know you are!" Sam snapped back. "Starving yourself won't help Julie." Dean sighed after a moment. He stood up and ran a frustrated hand over his face.

"You're right." He admitted. "I'm, uh, just going to go for a walk, maybe get a bite to eat. You'll…" Sam nodded.

"I'll be right here until you get back." He promised. Dean nodded once before walking out of the room As soon as the door shut behind him, Sam sighed and leaned over to rest his elbows on his knees and cupped the back of his head with his hands. Worrying about Julie and Dean was exhausting. He looked up at Julie in the bed and sighed. He stood up, walked over, sat down in the chair Dean had just vacated, and took her small hand in his. "Okay, Jules, the doctors have tried everything else to get you to wake up." He said by way of explanation as to why he was going to start talking to her. "Dean's really worried. I've never seen him like this, actually. He barely eats, doesn't sleep, doesn't speak, and hasn't hit on a single nurse since we've been here. And since you evidently know Dean very well you know how off that is." Sam said with a humorless chuckle. "He's not the only one worried. " Sam said in a more serious tone. So, if you can hear me Jules, just do us both a favor and wake up." He waited with bated breath for a few moments to see if she was going to do as he asked and when she didn't he sighed. "Worth a shot." He said to himself.

_**LATER THAT NIGHT**_

Sam had just left for the night to do more research. He'd tried to convince Dean that he should go back to the motel for a few hours while Sam sat with Julie but Dean refused. Sam had left saying the same thing he had every other night, which was to call him if anything changed. Dean sat in the same chair as he always did as the nurses came in to check on Julie. They offered him a pillow and blanket like every night and none were surprised when he refused. They knew in a few hours he'd doze off in the chair only to wake up a short while later to sit and stare at what they thought was his comatose wife. The first few nights Dean had been hopeful. He knew that the longer she was unconscious the less hope there was that she'd ever wake up. Now part him sat there because he just wanted to be with her when she did die. The other part of him sat there because he knew Julie was too damn strong to let this kill her. She was the girl that had had the crap kicked out of her, stabbed in the leg, no shoes on, and still managed to save his ass from some ghost trying to kill him.

Julie was pretty much the only female Dean had ever consistently had in his life. His mother died when he was four. His father never remarried. He wasn't the one woman kind of guy. Most of the people he considered close to him or family were other hunters, which implied they were men. Julie was the only girl and pretty much his only friend. Sam was his brother and up until a few years ago that was all he was. Now they were friends but they only got that way by being brothers. Bobby was an old family friend but he was more like a father to Dean than anything else. Jo and Ellen were people he cared for but he wasn't particularly close to either of them. He closer to them than most but nowhere near how close he was to Julie, or at least how close he had been before Claire had died. He'd hoped that now that the two had met up and hunted again, maybe he'd get to see her again before he died. He hadn't wanted it to happen like this. He'd just wanted to get to the chance to spend a little time with one of his only friends again before he died.

"I've been sitting her for four days and all I've done is think about every memory I have of you." Dean said leaning over and resting his arms on his knees. "I still remember the day I met you. I remember thinking you were this annoying punkass kid. I remember the first night I saw you again after all those years had passed. We were in a bar in Nebraska and I remember thinking holy hell Julie Cooper grew up. I remember those ten months we hunted together. I remember the night Claire died. I still have nightmares about it. I remember how hopeless I felt afterwards when I didn't know what to do or say to help you. I remember the morning I woke up and you were just gone. I remember how hurt I was and how much I worried about you." Dean sighed. "No matter what we went through, I knew you'd be there. Even now when the doctors are telling me that the longer you stay asleep the less likely you are to ever wake up, I can't even begin to comprehend a world where you don't exist. That's why I need you to wake up." Dean told his friend. "Wake up." He said more forcefully when she didn't do as he said. He watched her fact for a moment before sighing. He ran a frustrated hand over his face. "We still need you Coop."

It was crazy. Dean had actually convinced himself that if he had this big revelatory speech like they did in the movies Julie would open her eyes just because he'd talked to her. It was silly but he was starting to lose whatever hope he'd had that Julie was ever going to wake up. Sighing he leaned back in his chair and went back to staring between Julie's face and all the machines beeping around her.

_**THE NEXT MORNING**_

The next morning Dean tried to wait until Sam got there but he had to pee. He tried to hold it but at about 5AM he had to go. Before leaving, he'd done what he did every other time he left Julie alone and that was to tell her he'd be right back. He made his way down to the bathroom where he quickly did his business and then took a little detour to the vending machine. All the coffee was catching up with him and making him pee every couple of hours. It was annoying. Instead of grabbing another vending machine coffee, Dean decided on a bottle of water. He wasn't a huge water drinker but anything was better than consuming more caffeine. He grabbed his bottle of water and headed back to Julie's room.

When he got near Julie's room he saw a bunch of nurses rushing into her room. He froze in the hall for half a second before he dropped his bottle of water and running the rest of the length of the hall to her room. He ran into the room and saw a whole bunch of people around Julie's bed. Every nurse on the floor seemed to be there and he saw Julie's doctor. Through all the bodies it was impossible to see Julie, which meant he had no idea what was going on. He heard plenty of voices but he couldn't pick one out over the others. He stood there frozen as he tried to figure out what was going on. His heart was beating quickly and his mind had gone blank. Only one thought got through the fog and that thought was that despite sitting by her bedside since she got here, Julie had died without him sitting next to her.

Then he heard what sounded like squealing. He then realized that Julie's legs were flailing and all the nurses weren't there because they were crashing. They were there because they were trying to hold Julie down. The doctor had his hand around her head and he was shining a light in her eyes. All the nurses held Julie in place by her arms and her legs. She wasn't saying anything but she was fighting them off. She wasn't dead. She was awake and judging by the commotion she was making she was either pissed off or terrified. Without thinking Dean rushed forward and when the nurses tried to push him back he refused. He got right up by the top of the bed and squeezed his way through so that he could see Julie's face. Her eyes were open wide and she had a confused and pissed off look on her face. Despite how uncomfortable and scared she must have been right then, all Dean could do was smile because he thought for sure she was going to die.

"Hey, hey, hey…" Dean said in his peaceful voice. "Calm down." He said. Julie looked up at him and as soon as she saw his face she stopped moving around. She narrowed her eyes at him and he could how she slowly connected his face with a name and understanding hit her. He smiled down at her. "You're okay." He told her. Sensing that she was not longer going to try and harm any of them or herself, the nurses slowly let go of her limbs and the doctor stopped restraining her head. All but two nurses and the doctor left the room. They all seemed hesitant towards touching her since they were worried it would cause her to start fighting them again. "The doc needs to look you over, okay?" Dean asked her. After a moment Julie slowly nodded her head. Dean looked up at the doctor and gave him a nod that told him to go ahead and do his thing.

Fifteen minutes later, after making Julie promise to behave for the nurse so that she could get her vitals and double check to make sure everything was okay, Dean followed the doctor out into the hall so that they could talk without concerning Julie. Dean made sure that he could see Julie from where he stood, which meant she could see him.

"So?" Dean asked. The doctor looked at Julie and then back at Dean.

"Who's Claire?" The doctor asked. Dean narrowed his eyes at the doctor for a moment before answering.

"Uh, Claire was Julie's younger sister."

"Was?" Dean nodded.

"She died four years ago. Suicide." The doctor nodded his head at Dean's answer. "Why do you ask?"

"When she woke up the first thing she did was start screaming for her sister." Dean narrowed his eyes.

"Is it normal for a person to be confused after what she's been through?" The doctor nodded his head.

"Oh yes, of course. Many times the confusion leads to the patient becoming combative, which is what happened in the room. What I'm concerned about is what she was saying before you came into the room."

"What do you mean?"

"She kept insisting we had to let her go so she could get the demon." Dean fought to keep his face straight. "On very rare occasions, some patients become so confused they don't know the difference between make believe and reality."

"Oh, I'm sure Julie's fine. It was probably just a dream that seemed incredibly real to her." The doctor nodded his head.

"I want you to talk to your wife for a little while and see if she seems confused or anything." Dean nodded. "Now, she may have lost some time. She may think it's four years ago when Claire was still alive. That usually doesn't last long and once someone corrects her she will probably regain those memories. In some instances the amnesia will continue for a while. On very rare occasions the amnesia becomes permanent."

"Is that something I should be concerned about?" The doctor shook his head.

"At this stage I believe Julie will adapt very well but I want you to be aware of all possible outcomes." Dean nodded as the nurses left the room. "Let the nurses know if you need anything."

"Thanks doc." Dean said shaking the doctor's hand before going back into the room. Julie was now sitting up in the bed and Dean smiled at her as he took his seat in the chair. Julie looked at him with a confused smile on her face. "How are you feeling?"

"A little confused." She admitted. Dean nodded his head.

"Do you remember what happened?" She narrowed her eyes in thought and after a moment nodded her head.

"There was this car behind me. He passed me and then slammed on his breaks. I swerved so I didn't hit him and I think I crashed into a tree." Dean nodded. "That's it."

"The doctor says you were screaming for Claire." Dean said a moment later in a delicate voice. Julie sighed and nodded.

"I know she's dead, Dean." She said in a hard low voice.

"Then why were you screaming for her?"

"You'll think I'm insane." Dean smiled kindly at her.

"Jules, sweetie, our entire lives are insane." Julie smiled a little at that.

"Since Claire died I've had these dreams about her."

"What kind of dreams?"

"They vary. Sometimes I just replay memories. Other times we talk."

"Were you talking to Claire while you were in the coma?" Julie nodded her head. Dean sighed. "You know it isn't real don't you? You're not really talking to Claire." Julie rolled her eyes.

"I know that Dean. It's just my way of dealing." Dean opened his mouth to respond. "Where's Sam?" Julie asked trying to direct the conversation into a more comfortable zone. Dean sighed.

"At the motel. I need to call him and let him know you're awake." Julie nodded as Dean stood up. "I'm going to grab something from the cafeteria. Do you want anything?"

"Jell-O!" Julie said excitedly. Dean looked at her curiously.

"You hate Jell-O, Jules." Julie narrowed her eyes at him.

"I do?" Dean nodded. "Oh." She looked down at her hands. "Do I like fries?" She asked a moment later. Dean smiled.

"You love fries, extra salt." Julie smiled.

"Thanks Dean." Dean nodded and left the room.

Dean wasn't going to let Julie know that he was worried about her. Julie had had a strict no Claire talk before the accident. She never would have let Dean ask her questions about her sister. It was like she forgot how painful it was for her to even think about Claire. On top of that, one of things Julie hated more than anything in the world was Jell-O. It didn't matter what flavor it was or any of that stuff. She hated any and all Jell-O. Yet she hadn't remembered that. Dean knew that a certain amount of confusion was expected after brain surgery but he just hoped it cleared. It wouldn't be good if she forgot the only silver worked on a werewolf or something during a hunt. Regardless of what the doctors said or how much Julie complained, Dean was going to make sure Julie had at least three weeks of just resting before jumping back into hunting. _She's going to kill me,_ Dean thought as he dialed his brother's number and put the phone to his ear.

_**Julie POV**_

Julie sat in the hospital bed alone and thought. She hadn't remembered Claire was dead when she'd first woken up. That's why she'd screamed for her. After a few minutes Julie was able to remember that Claire was dead but even now she couldn't quite remember how it happened. All she could see was blood. She knew Dean was worried about her so she wasn't going to let him know how little she could remember. She remembered the accident vaguely. She remembered most of her childhood. She just couldn't seem to remember much about the past few years. She didn't remember where she'd been going before the accident. She didn't remember how Dean and her had started hunting together again. She remembered that Sammy was no longer at Stanford but she couldn't remember why. It was like she remembered the outline of her life but she couldn't remember how it got like that. She didn't remember her likes and her dislikes but she remembered everything about Claire. Julie's thoughts were interrupted a few minutes later when someone knocked on the door. Julie looked up and saw Sam standing there. She smiled at him.

"Sammy!" She said happily as he walked into the room with a smile on his face. He stopped nervously at the bottom of the bed. Julie glared at him a little. "I'm not going to break if you give me a hug." He smiled and gave her a light and gentle hug.

"How are you feeling?"

"Honestly?" Julie asked. Sam smiled and nodded. Julie sighed. "I feel like I'm losing my mind."

"Why?"

"I'm having trouble remembering some things." Julie admitted. "Nothing major but still obnoxious."

"That's to be expected." Sam said reassuringly. "It'll come back to." He assured her. Julie sighed again.

"God, I hope so. It's really obnoxious not knowing what I like and what I don't like." Sam smiled.

"Well now you get to experience everything again for the first time." Sam said trying to cheer her up. Julie smiled.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." When she thought of it like that it was hard to be too upset about it. "Do you know when I'll be able to get out of here?" Sam smiled at her eagerness to leave despite having just woken up from an almost five day coma.

"I saw the doctor on the way in and he said that he wants to keep you for a few days just for observation but then you can leave."

"A few days?" Julie asked in a bummed voice. Sam nodded. "Can't, you know, smuggle me out early?" Julie asked hopefully, causing Sam to chuckle before shaking his head.

"You just had surgery to repair a ruptured spleen and brain surgery. You'll stay till they kick you out." Julie sighed.

"Fine but if you're ever in the hospital don't expect me to bail your ass out."

"Understood." Sam said with a smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"It's been four days, doc." Julie told the doctor in an annoyed tone. Since waking up four days prior, Julie had done anything and everything she was told to so that she could get out of there as soon as possible. They said eat your peas and she ate, even though she learned that second day that she hated peas. They said she needed to rest so she would lie back with her eyes clothes and tried to either nap or just relax. She did absolutely everything she was told to do. She was the model patient. Each day the doctor would come in first thing in thing in the morning when his shift started and check up on her. Each day Julie would ask the doctor if she could go home and each day the doctor would tell her no. Well, it was never a flat out no. It was always a let's see how things go today. The first couple of days Julie just did what was asked of her but the morning of the third day, when the doc told her that they'd just see how things went she snapped a little. That had only served to make the doctor think that maybe the hematoma was causing her to lash out in anger. It wasn't. She just hated sitting in a damn bed doing nothing except watch television day in and day out.

"I know you're ready to leave, Mrs. Monroe but I just want to make sure everything is okay before we release you."

"Did her CT come out okay?" Sam asked when he sensed that Julie was about to lash out again. The doctor sighed.

'Yes, it looked perfect, which is what concerns me?"

"Wait!" Julie said with a confused look on her face and in an annoyed tone. "Now you're telling me I'm stuck here because I'm acting too healthy?" Dr. Gorman sighed but nodded his head.

"A person who suffered from an Epidural Hematoma like yours should have lasting effects from it."

"I have headaches, some memory loss, and I have issues sleeping. How are those not lasting effects?"

"Can I talk to you for a second out here, doc?" Dean asked. The doctor sighed and nodded his head and the two walked out into the hall. Dean waited until the door was closed behind them before speaking again. "First off, I'm sorry about my wife. She's not the type of person that likes sitting around doing nothing." Dean said trying to butter the doctor up a little. "Is there any way we could allow her to finish healing at home?" The doctor sighed and thought for a moment.

"I would be willing to sign off on her release if she agreed to meet with a doctor back home once a week and agreed to take things very, very easy for at least the next month." Dean nodded. "She also needs to be monitored at all times. I'm not saying she can't be in a room by herself but someone else needs to be in the house with her at all times."

"Not going to be a problem." Dean assured the doctor.

"She would also need to continue taking anticonvulsants, just as a precaution for a few more months. She needs to continue her relaxation and breathing exercises because that will help her regain her memories. Diet and exercise are going to be important but the exercise must be moderate." Dean nodded his head.

"Anything else?"

"She may continue experiencing a little bit of dizziness for a few more weeks still. That's perfectly normal. If the dizziness increases or becomes more severe she needs to be seen right away. If her headaches persist for more than a few weeks or they're getting worse she needs to be seen right away. If she becomes more forgetful or it appears the amnesia is worsening, get her to a hospital immediately. Those could all be signs that the hematoma is once again leaking into her brain. It's crucial she gets seen immediately." Dean nodded. "And before any doctor completely releases her, make sure they do another CT or MRI just to ensure everything is still healing normally." Dean nodded. "I should warn you, the healing process is not always easy for patients. They feel some of their freedoms have been taken away and can become irritably and downright nasty. Whoever is with her must be able to stay calm and not lash out in retaliation." Dean smiled.

"Doc, I've been on the receiving end of her irritability and lash outs for years. I can take it." The doctor smiled.

"I'll get the paperwork started."

"Thank you, sir." Dean said as he shook the doc's hand. He watched the doctor walk away and sighed once before going into the room. Julie looked up at him with hopeful eyes. Dean forced his face into a grave look for about fifteen seconds before smiling. "You're going home!" Julie smiled brightly and clapped her hands. The result was she looked like a five year old. "Of course there are conditions."

"Like what?" Julie's face fell. Dean sighed and told her everything the doctor had just told her. "I don't have anyone to sit with me twenty four hours a day, Dean." She said in a hard voice.

"I was thinking we call up Bobby Singer and ask him if he'd mind." Julie smiled at that.

"That wouldn't be so bad." She admitted.

"The doctor is getting your discharge papers together and then we should be out of here."

"What about my truck?" Julie asked in a hopeful voice.

"You didn't tell her?" Dean asked Sam, who had a deer caught in the headlights look on his face.

"It never came up." Sam defended.

"Tell me what?" Julie asked in a small voice. Dean sighed.

"Uh, well, Sam went to check on your truck a few days ago and…well there isn't much left."Julie's eyes widened. "It sort of caught fire and POOF!" Dean made the sign of something blowing up with his hands.

"But…but…my stuff." She finished lamely.

"Whoever got you out of the truck grabbed your bag of clothes but we haven't seen your weapons bag." Sam said. Julie sighed.

"Well, I guess clothes are better than nothing." She said in a slightly happier tone.

_**BOBBY'S HOUSE TWO DAYS LATER**_

Julie looked up at the house in front of her and smiled. She hadn't been here in years but it looked almost exactly the same. It was just as rundown as ever and there were thousands of broken down cars surrounding the place. It was the closest Julie had ever come to having a home. Sometimes, when Julie was in her teens and her father and her were once again fighting about whatever was that week's topic, Julie would take off and stay with Bobby Singer for a few nights. She'd calm down. Her father would, well not calm down but he wouldn't be ready to kill his daughter the next time he saw her. Things were back to normal. Bobby was like a second father to her and one that she usually always got along with. She wasn't looking forward to the mandatory month off from hunting but it would be nice to get to spend some time with Bobby again. Since Claire had died, Julie had sort of pushed everyone out of her life, including Bobby. While she wasn't actually sure what she was going to do with a month of downtime, Julie figured she'd spend a lot of time catching up with the older hunter.

Dean put the Impala in park and Julie climbed out of the backseat. Bobby, having heard the car pull up, came out onto the porch and Julie smiled. She was a little sore and a little beat up from the accident so when she walked she had a slight limp to her step. She walked as quickly as she could up to the porch and smiled as she threw her arms around the older man's neck. She heard Bobby chuckle in her ear as she pulled her close to him in a warm, friendly hug. Bobby didn't have any family. His wife had died a long time ago and the two had never had children. Sam and Dean were like the sons he'd never got to have and Julie was like the daughter he'd always wanted. A guy like Bobby needed to have sons so he'd have someone to relate to but he'd always wanted a daughter. He'd loved both Julie and Claire very much but Julie had always been closer to him. As a child, Claire for the most part kept to herself and only really listened to Julie. He wasn't happy that Julie was injured, of course, but he was glad she was going to be forced to stay a while. It had been too long since he'd last seen her.

"You look good, Bobby." Julie told him in a sincere voice when they'd pulled back from the hug. Bobby rolled his eyes before responding.

"And you look like you just crashed into a tree, oh wait you did." Julie smiled at him.

"There's that Bobby Singer humor I've missed." Julie said halfway sarcastically.

"I'm glad you're here, Jules." He said. Julie smiled and nodded her head.

"I am too, although if you give me about two days you'll probably have different opinion." Julie admitted. He smiled

"Your usual room is all made up." He said indicating the upstairs. "New sheets and everything." Julie doubted that but it was the thought that counted. "I even got you a new pillow." Julie smiled.

"You mean since the last time I stayed here seven years ago?" Julie teased.

"Hey Bobby." Dean said coming up onto the porch with Sam. "Thanks for letting her stay."

"I'm not doing it for you, ya idjit." Dean smiled.

"I'm going to get unpacked." Julie said pointing upstairs. "You two aren't going to take off without saying goodbye, are you?" She asked Sam and Dean. Sam shook his head. Julie smiled and took her bag from Dean and headed upstairs.

"So, how is she really?" Bobby asked once the boys and him were alone. Dean sighed.

"She's…better. The doctor says she might have some issues remembering everything and she might get frustrated."

"I've dealt with a frustrated Julie Cooper enough to know how to handle her." Bobby insisted. Dean smiled and handed him a piece of paper.

"These are the doctor's orders." He said. "If anything gets worse she needs to be seen right away."

"Dr. Gorman set up Julie with a doctor down here at the hospital in town." Sam said. "She needs to meet with him every Friday." Bobby nodded.

"Julie already knows all this but you know how she likes to pretend she's fine. She may not let you know if anything is wrong." Dean said.

"We'll be fine. If I can handle teenage Julie, I'm sure adult Julie will be no problem."

"One would think." Dean said vaguely. "I'm going to see if she needs anything before we head out of here."

"Where you guys headed?"

"Cicero, Indiana." Dean said with a cocky smile as he walked away. Bobby turned to Sam, who rolled his eyes.

"A girl Dean hooked up with about a decade ago lives there. He claims there might be a hunt but I think he just wants to see her."

"He's going all the way to Indiana for some chick?" Bobby asked skeptically. Sam chuckled and nodded.

"According to him it was the bendiest weekend of his life. Called her Gumby girl." Bobby snorted.

"Guess that makes him Pokey." Sam smiled because that's exactly what Dean had said.

Dean and Sam ditching her almost immediately at Bobby's was not something Julie appreciated but she understood, sort of. On the way to Bobby's from the hospital Dean had picked up a newspaper and saw something about this death in Indiana. He said it sounded like a case to him but to Julie all it sounded like was some moron forgot to turn his power saw off and then he fell on top of it. When the boys thought she was sleeping in the backseat they'd talked about Gumby girl and Julie assumed that was Dean's real reason for taking off. What annoyed her more than anything was that Dean had felt the need to lie about there being a case. If he wanted to go and spend a few nights with some chick more power to him. Julie was used to Dean sleeping with just about anything female that moved, well with the exception of her. Julie just hoped there was a case so that Sam would have something to do besides sit in a motel room while his big brother got laid.

If she was being totally honest with herself and everyone else, this case annoyed her for some reason. She wasn't sure if she was just annoyed because Dean had spent the past ten or eleven days with her while she'd been in the hospital and on the way here but as soon as he'd had the chance to pawn her off on someone else he was gone or what. All she knew was that it had been nice to have Dean with her. He'd taken care of all the little things at the hospital and had made sure she had whatever she needed. That's how he'd always been. Even back when she'd hunted with him four years ago he'd always been so focused on her needs and Claire's needs above anyone else. It annoyed her that he was taking off to go bang some freakily flexible bimbo from his past. Most people would say she was annoyed because she had feelings for Dean but no one would have said that to Julie's face because she might have kicked their asses. As far as Julie was concerned, she was unable to feel emotions like that. She'd spent the past four years telling herself those kinds of feelings only led to pain. Either way, she was annoyed but wasn't going to let Dean know it.

After excusing herself she'd gone up to the room she'd always slept in when she stayed there. Not much had changed. There was a dresser, a twin sized bed, a nightstand, a bookshelf, and a small closet. The quilt on the bed was the same as always and Julie was pretty sure it had been there since Bobby's wife Karen had died. Julie only had one bag of stuff. Her other bags had gone up in flames with the truck, which meant she'd have to go shopping soon. That might be potentially problematic since she wasn't supposed to be left alone and she knew Bobby would freak if he heard the word shopping. Since there was only the one bag of stuff unpacking took Julie only a few minutes. She wasn't used to unpacking because she wasn't used to being in one place for more than a few days. She put her clothes in the dresser and hung her jacket up in the closet. She had some miscellaneous things to put away, like her six pairs of Chucks, and some photographs but other than that she didn't have much in the way of possessions. The only big thing she'd had had been the truck and that was evidently toast. She had just put her duffle bag in the closet when she heard a knock at the door and turned to see Dean standing there. Julie smiled at him and waved him in.

"Are you guys getting ready to take off?" She asked. He nodded and sat on the edge of the bed.

"It's a twelve hour drive. We'll drive halfway tonight and finish up tomorrow."

"Do you think it's a real case?" Julie asked. Dean looked at her oddly.

"Why would we be going if there wasn't a case?" He asked in a confused voice. Julie gave him a get real face.

"I don't know, Dean." Julie said sarcastically. "It couldn't possibly be because of…what was it you called her? Gumby girl?"

"You heard that?" Dean asked with an uncertain smile on his face. Julie nodded her head with a tight lipped smile. "I just know how annoyed you used to get when I'd talk about stuff like that around you." Dean explained trying to defend himself.

"Dean, you're a big boy and you can sleep with whoever you want. What annoys me is that you felt the need to lie to me about it."

"This wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that we're ditching you at Bobby's and hunting, would it?" Julie narrowed her eyes at him.

"No, this has something to with you acting like I'd care if you drove all the way to Indiana just to see some chick."

"And you don't care?" Julie shook her head. "Of course you don't. I was just checking." Dean said quickly. "Are you absolutely sure you don't care?" Dean asked a few moments later Julie glared at him. "I just want to make sure. Four years ago you would have cared" Julie rolled her eyes and tried to hide her embarrassment over the fact that Dean remembered her having feelings for him four years ago. He'd found out a few nights before Claire died and it would have forced them to go their separate ways if Claire's death hadn't.

"Dean, I was twenty years old and for all intensive purposes a moron." Julie said in a defensive tone. Dean nodded in understanding.

"So you have to be a moron to like me?" Dean asked a moment later after thinking about it. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Of course you'd have to be a moron to like you, Dean." Julie snapped. "Liking you is sort of asking to have your heart broken."

"I do not break hearts." Dean said defensively. Julie looked at him with wide eyes that were clearly asking if he really believed that. "What?" He demanded in a harder voice. "I don't!"

"You sweet talk women into bed and then disappear before the sun comes up." Julie snapped at him. "If that doesn't break a few hearts I don't know what does." Dean thought about it for a moment before nodding in agreement.

"But I only sleep with easy women and easy women usually don't get hurt. "

"Are you freaking…?" She'd been about to snap but forced herself to stop. She took a few deep breaths to calm down before looking back up at Dean with a much softer look on her face. "Look, I don't want to argue with you. You do what you want." Julie insisted. "Have fun on the case…or whatever you find in Indiana. I'll see you when you get back." Julie said in a kind voice.

"Just like that?" Dean asked in a confused voice.

"Just like that." Julie insisted. "Just be safe." Julie told him. He smiled and nodded as he stood up from the bed. "Be safe." Julie repeated in a firmer voice. Dean had the habit of doing the exact opposite. Julie stepped forward and hugging him.

"Are you going to say goodbye to Sam?" Dean asked when Julie had pulled away from the hug. Julie nodded and followed him downstairs.

"All settled in?" Bobby asked skeptically. Julie smiled and nodded.

"Didn't have much stuff to put away." Julie answered with a shrug. "I've already told Dean but I'm telling you too, if this turns into a legitimate case, be safe." Sam smiled.

"How'd you know?"

"I fake sleep with the best of them." Julie said allowing herself a smile. "You'll be safe, won't you?" Sam nodded his head. "And you'll keep your jackass of a brother safe too, won't you?"

"I'll try." Sam said. Julie smiled and took a few steps forward and wrapped her arms around Sam's neck. "You relax while we're gone." Sam told her as he hugged her. Julie rolled her eyes as she pulled back from the hug.

"With no TV, that shouldn't be a problem." Julie said with a smile. "I'll probably just find a car somewhere in the yard to replace the truck and work on it." Dean shook his head.

"That's not taking it easy." Julie rolled her eyes.

"I won't be getting thrown around, which counts as taking it easy in my book."

"She'll be fine." Bobby insisted. "You boys should go before it gets too late." They both nodded and walked towards the door. Dean turned back at the door and Julie gave him a little wave with a tight lipped look. He nodded and closed the door behind him. As soon as he left Julie let out a long sigh. That boy could be so exhausting.

_**ONE WEEK LATER**_

Taking it easy was harder than it sounded for Julie. The first night she was there she'd passed the time by reading from Bobby's various books. The man had only one kind of book and that meant she read about the supernatural. It was interesting at first but that led to her thinking about hunting and how much she missed hunting. Hunting was the only life Julie had ever known. Sure, she thought the supernatural and the hunting lifestyle were to blame for her shitty lifestyle but if she didn't have hunting she wasn't sure what she'd do. The books reminded her of hat she should be doing. She shouldn't be sitting on her ass doing nothing when there evil things out there that needed killing. She should be out there getting her ass kicking and returning the favor by killing whatever it was that had kicked her ass. It was really hard for her to just sit there and Bobby knew it. There wasn't much else he could have her do though. That night she went to bed at 9:30 because she had absolutely nothing else to do with her day. The next day Julie woke up super early and spent all day cleaning the house top to bottom.

The next day Julie had woken up at 7:30 and had been unable to go back to sleep. She tried for two hours before finally giving up and going downstairs to get breakfast. After breakfast, Julie had pulled up her laptop, which had thankfully been in her bag and not in the truck. For lack of something better to do, Julie joined a MySpace and created her own page. The idea of a MySpace page seemed ridiculous to Julie. But she had nothing to do so she spent six hours creating her page. It was only when she got an e-mail from some old pervert asking if they could meet up for some fun that Julie realized she'd just wasted six hours of her life creating a page no one she knew would ever see. She was just going to delete her page but if she did that it would be like the last six hours had never happened and then they were truly wasted. So, she'd kept the page. She should have turned the computer off but something in the bottom of the screen caught her attention and she clicked on it. She was taken to one of those online gaming pages like WOW or whatever. The game was ridiculous but somehow it managed to get her hooked. She stayed up 4AM playing and then ended up crashing there at the computer.

Bobby woke her up the next day. He'd made a nice breakfast spread of pancakes, bacon, and eggs. He'd walked into the living room area where Julie had passed out and had gently shaken her awake. Julie had popped up quickly with key marks on her face from the keyboard and a severely screwed up neck from sleeping in that one position all night. She'd looked at the computer and realized that before bed she'd failed to save her game, which meant that everything she'd worked so hard to achieve in the game had been lost because she'd been killed. Julie had started at the screen for a full minute with anger bubbling up.

"Son of bitch!" She shouted before slamming her laptop closed. Bobby looked down at her with wide eyes.

"Are you okay?" He asked. Julie looked up at him and he saw the anger in her eyes.

"No, I am not okay! The damn orks killed me!" She said pointing to the closed laptop in anger. Bobby narrowed his eyes at her.

"The damn what?" He asked in a clearly confused voice.

"The orks!" Julie yelled. Bobby again gave her the wide eyed look and it was then that Julie realized what she said. "Oh my god." She said slowly before leaning back in the chair and slouching down. "What's happened to me?" She asked in a sad voice. Bobby patted her shoulder.

"Maybe you should go outside for a bit." He suggested. Julie had nodded, stood up, and walked out.

The fresh air had helped big time. It had helped ease the caged feeling in her chest and had helped to refocus her mind. She'd spent the greater portion of three hours walking around Bobby's junkyard looking at all the crappy cars sitting there. Most of them were beyond help. They were all just scraps of metal at that point. It was actually pretty sad to see some of the greatest pieces of machinery reduced to nothing more than metal in a junkyard. She was getting ready to walk back to the house when she saw it. It was an old 1968 Chevelle SS 454. It was no longer one color but the body was solid. The engine looked pretty worn but she knew with a little TLC it might run like a champ once again. Julie then spent two hours going over the car with a fine toothed comb. She made a list of all the things that needed to be done just to make it run again. It was going to need almost an entire new engine but most of the parts she'd be able to find in the junkyard. She was going to need to spend hours sanding the thing down so that she could paint it. It was going to take a lot of time, a lot of work, but it might make it possible to keep her from going totally insane over the next few weeks cooped up in the damn house. It might make it easier for her to survive taking it easy, whatever the hell that meant.

So one week later, after going insane for the first three days, Julie was finally adjusting. She woke up each morning, ate breakfast with Bobby, and then went outside to work on the Chevelle. She'd work till lunch time and then she'd go inside and cook lunch. Bobby and Julie would eat breakfast and then Julie would go back out to work on the car. She spent a lot of time looking under the hoods of other cars to see if she could find what she needed. A few things she just couldn't find and some others she just wanted brand new for her peace of mind, so she'd go online at night before bed and see where she could get a cheap one. If it hadn't been for the Chevelle, Julie would have gone insane within the first week. The car gave her something to focus on so that she didn't think about the fact that she wasn't out hunting. The car was also a means to an end. Once she was released by the doctor and pretty much told she was now allowed to resume getting hit on the head a few times a week, she would be allowed to go back to hunting. Once she went back to hunting she was going to need a vehicle to get her where she needed to go. Since the truth was now in motor vehicle heaven, she needed a new one. As much as she missed the truck and the slight connection she'd felt with her mother whenever she drove it, she was super excited about the Chevelle. This was going to be her car.

On the eighth day of her stay at Bobby's, Julie had just finished making grilled cheese sandwiches and Mac n'cheese. She called Bobby in from the study where he was doing research on god only knew what. Bobby wasn't the type of guy who needed decorations or needed things to look pretty. Julie really wasn't either. That meant the two ate off of paper plates or paper towels and the only table decoration they had was some part Julie needed to clean out before putting back into the Chevelle. Julie and Bobby were ideally suited for living together. They enjoyed each other's company during mealtimes and had plenty to talk about but they didn't require constant conversation throughout the day. They could each be off doing their own thing and come together at meal times to talk about whatever was on their mind. Bobby didn't care how the house looked and as long as everything was in organized chaos, Julie was cool. Julie cooked better than Bobby and she actually sort of enjoyed doing it. It was one of the only domestic things she was good at and enjoyed. She was good at cleaning but she hated it. She was good at sewing but she hated it. Cooking was the only traditional female role she took and was actually happy about it. Cohabitating with Bobby was easy. Eventually Julie would start feeling caged in no matter how many hours she spent outside but for now they were doing good.

"How's the Chevelle comin'?" Bobby asked before taking a bite of his grilled cheese. Julie shrugged while she chewed.

"Good." She answered when her mouth was empty. "I haven't been able to find a master cylinder in good shape yet."

"I could probably make a few phone calls, if you like." Julie smiled at Bobby and nodded.

"That would be great." She said enthusiastically. "Have you heard from the boys yet?" It had been eight days and Julie hadn't heard a thing from either boy. It was kind of insulting in a way. Bobby nodded.

"Sam called a couple of hours ago and said they were going to head back this way." Julie nodded.

"Was it a case or did Sam sit in a motel room while Dean got his freak on?" Julie asked. Bobby chuckled.

"Sam didn't say." Bobby answered with a small smile. "I'm going to town tomorrow. You need anything?" Julie nodded and pulled a list out of her back pocket and handed it to Bobby. He opened the list and read through it. "The motor oil, air filter, and spark plugs won't be a problem but I might raise suspicions if I try to buy all these weapons at once." Julie sighed.

"Yeah, I figured as much but I've got nothing. All my things went up in flames."

"We'll get you new ones before sending you on your way." Bobby assured her. Julie smiled at him.

"Thanks Bobby." She said before standing up and throwing her stuff away.

"I can do the clean up." Bobby told her before she started washing the dishes.

"You sure?" Julie asked in an uncertain voice. Bobby smiled and nodded.

"I did survive before you came along, you know?" He teased. Julie smiled, walked over, and kissed the top of his head.

"Wonders never cease."She said before walking away.

Julie went right back out into the yard to continue working on the Chevelle. The car didn't quite look like a car yet. There were no wheels on it and the engine was looking a little bare. Julie had spent most of the past few days going through the car and tossing out the bad things and keeping the good ones. It was a long process and Julie spent most of her time cleaning the parts to see if they were good or bad. This meant she got really, really dirty and spent at least fifteen minutes scrubbing in the shower to get clean each night before bed. The job was monotonous but Julie enjoyed it. She loved working on cars more than anything. Engines made her happy. Knowing how something worked was a comfort to her in a way she could never begin to describe. It kept her mind occupied and kept her from realizing she wasn't hunting like she wanted to be. This could be considered a bad thing since, well let's face it, anyone could sneak up on her and gut her like a fish. Someone did sneak up on her but thankfully that person didn't want to kill her.

"You know, you've got a big bull's-eye on your forehead out here." Ruby said leaning against a nearby car. Julie jumped about a foot in the air and turned to Ruby with a raised crowbar in her hand. She sighed when she saw Ruby and lowered the crowbar.

"Damn it, Ruby! If you do not stop sneaking up on me I am going to kill you." Julie promised pointing a threatening finger at the demon. Ruby rolled her eyes. "What are you doing here anyway?" Julie asked in an annoyed tone.

"I just thought you might want these back." Ruby picked up a duffle bag from the ground and tossed it at Julie's feet. Julie eyed the bag suspiciously and then looked up at demon with raised eyebrows.

"What's in the bag?" Julie demanded. Ruby rolled her eyes.

"Take a look." Julie set the crowbar down and then kneeled in front of the bag. Julie opened and saw all her weapons.

"These are my weapons." Julie said looking up at Ruby with a shocked look on her face. "Sam said they were in the truck when it went up in flames." She said in a confused voice. That's when Julie figured it out. "You were the one that placed the 911 call." Ruby crossed her arms over her chest in a defensive posture.

"I didn't realize you had a price on your head till after you hit the tree. I tried to warn you but…" She left the sentence hanging.

"So the guy in the car was a demon?" Ruby nodded her head. "Why didn't he kill me?"

"He was about to when I showed up."

"You killed him?" Ruby nodded. Julie took a moment to process that before smiling. "Thanks, Ruby." Ruby just nodded her head in sort of an embarrassed way. "And thanks for pulling me out and saving my stuff." She nodded again.

"I figured I should hold on to those because that might have created some rather difficult questions to answer at the hospital." Julie smiled.

"Good call."

"I would have been here sooner but I had some stuff to take care of." Julie stood up.

"You want a beer?" Julie asked indicating the cooler. Ruby eyed the cooler suspiciously. "It's like nectar of the gods" Julie insisted with a smile. After a moment Ruby cracked a smile and held her hand out. Julie handed Ruby an ice cold beer. Once their beers were each opened they sat on an old backseat from some car and drank for a few minutes in silence.

"How's the head?" Ruby asked conversationally. Julie shrugged.

"The doctor says I should be happy I'm even alive and functioning at the level I'm at but it's not good enough for me."

"You want to be out hunting." Ruby guessed. Julie nodded. "You'll get back there. A few weeks off is hardly punishment." Julie smiled.

"It is when all you've ever done is hunt."

"It's still better than being a demon." Ruby reasoned. Julie thought it for a moment before nodding.

"Although you do get that super cool ability of never dying." Julie reasoned.

"Yeah, but that's only if a hunter doesn't find a way to do me in."

"You are such a Debbie Downer. You know that, don't you?" Ruby smiled and finished her beer.

"I've gotta jet. Things to do, places to be." She said vaguely before standing up.

"What do you do when you're not saving my ass, drinking my beer, or annoying me?" Julie asked. Ruby shrugged.

"A bit of this, a bit of that." She answered vaguely. This demon had the vague thing down pat.

"Well, that answers all my questions." Julie said sarcastically. She looked up and Ruby was already gone. "One of these days I'm going to superglue that demon's feet to the floor." Julie said to herself before standing up.

**LATER THAT NIGHT**

Nightfall had started to fall in Sioux Falls and Julie was still slaving away on the Chevelle. She hadn't even realized how dark it was getting. That's the bad thing about being so focused on something. Sometimes you just kind of forgot about the rest of the world. Her head had started to hurt a little bit before and she'd already taken a couple of pain killers. She wondered if it was from the beer. The doctor had given her a list of things not to consume until she was released from care and beer had been on that list; something about it thinning the blood, which would make it easier to bleed out. It was hard for Julie to stay away from beer though. To her it was like water, or bullets. It was vital if she was expected to not kill innocent bystanders. She'd been planning on wrapping up everything for the night when another voice behind her made her jump about a foot in the air. Julie had had a screwdriver in her hand and as she jumped she spun around quickly and held the screwdriver up ready to strike. It hadn't been necessary because it had only been Dean. He was leaning against the same car Ruby had been leaning against early that day. Julie sighed and lowered the screwdriver.

"What is it? Scare the shit out of Julie day?" Julie said with a hand over her heart. Dean smiled. "How long have you been there?"

"Only about a minute." Dean said with a shrug. "Sam and I just got in and Bobby told me you were still out here." Julie put the screwdriver down. "Shouldn't you be resting or something?" Julie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, if you want me to go insane." Julie retaliated. He sighed and moved away from the car. "So, how'd the case go?" Julie asked trying to be as impartial as possible. Dean smiled knowingly.

"You just want to know if there was an actual case or if I spent the past eight does with some girl." Julie rolled her eyes again.

"If you don't want to tell me that's fine." Julie snapped. He smiled and shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Turns out there was an actual case…changelings." Julie's eyes widened.

"You mean demonic replacement babies?" Dean nodded.

"Only they were older children and not babies." Julie thought about that before giving Dean a confused look.

"Is that…normal?" Dean thought about it before shrugging.

"Is anything ever really normal in our lives?" He reasoned. Julie smiled and shook her head almost instantly. "You about done for the night?" Dean asked a few minutes later. Julie sighed and nodded a moment later.

"Yeah, it's getting hard to see anyway." She said as she wiped her hands on her towel before tossing it back down.

"We picked up chicken." Dean said as an added incentive. Julie rolled her eyes as the two headed towards the house.

"We're going to die extremely young if we keep eating crap like that." She commented.

"Yeah, but haven't all of us already died once?" Julie thought about it.

"I've never died." She protested. Dean stopped walking and turned to look at her with a yes you have look on your face. "What?" Julie asked stopping to look at him. "I've never died." She repeated in a harder more final tone.

"Yes, you did." Dean said in a tone that clearly said he remembered it.

"When?" Julie practically shrieked.

"Four years and…." He thought for a moment. "Seven months ago."

"What are you talking about?" Julie said after thinking for a minute.

"We were hunting that ghost in Montana. You fell into the lake and got twisted up." He said in a voice that clearly asked if she was remembering anything he was saying. "It took me forever to resuscitate you." Then it hit her.

"Oh!" She said. "I completely forgot about that." She said like it was no big deal. Dean looked at her like she was insane.

"You died for anywhere between three and five minute and you don't remember it?" He asked in a shocked voice. Julie shrugged.

"I sort of just went to sleep." She said defensively. "Why do you remember it so well?"

"I don't know, maybe because you died." He said. Julie rolled her eyes.

"You died on me once or twice." She pointed out. Dean nodded. "You don't see me freaking out over it."

"Clearly I care about you more." Dean said with an obnoxiously cocky smile.

"Whatever." Julie said as they started walking towards the house again. It was silent for a minute while Julie thought. She wanted to make sure she said the next thing as best as she could. "So, was Gumby Girl as bendy as you remembered?" She asked conversationally. Dean chuckled nervously and shoved his hands in his pockets, which he did when he was uncomfortable.

"I, uh, don't know." He said slowly. Julie looked over at him with wide eyes. "Turns out she has a kid. A son. He's eight and for a hot second I thought he might have been mine." Dean explained a little bit.

"He's not?" Dean shook his head. "Why do you sound disappointed?" Dean sighed.

"It's just some things have happened recently and I realized that the only thing I'll leave behind when I die is a car."

"What does that mean?" Julie asked since it hadn't made any sense.

"Nothing." Dean said without looking at her.

"Don't get me that nothing bullshit, Winchester." Julie said in an annoyed tone. "Sam said something remarkable similar to that a few weeks back but he refused to tell me what it meant." Dean sighed.

"It's…complicated." Dean said in a upset tone. "Trust me when I say you don't want to know."

"I wouldn't ask if I didn't want to know."

"Can we just drop it, please?" Dean asked in a testy voice. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Regardless of you acting like a suspicious jackass," Julie said in an annoyed tone. "The kid doesn't exactly explain you not sleeping with her."

"I have my reasons." Dean said vaguely. Julie rolled her eyes and punched his arm before opening the front door of the house.

"You're such a pain in my ass." She said before walking back in. "Sammy!" Julie exclaimed when she saw Sam's 6 foot 4 frame. Sam turned away from Bobby, who he'd been talking to. He smiled at Julie as she quickly walked over to him and threw her arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around her waist and squeezed. "You grew."

"Not possible." He said with a chuckle. Julie pulled back and smiled at him. "Bobby says you have a replacement car lined up." Julie nodded.

"A 68 Chevelle that will kick the crap outta that Impala when I'm done with her."

"That's blasphemy!" Dean snapped as he pointed a threatening finger at Julie. Julie smiled at him.

"Let's eat before they start arguing." Bobby said.

"I'm starving!" Sam said enthusiastically.

**A/N Okay so I had so much more I wanted to do with this chapter and I am so sorry it took so long to get the next chapter out. My sister borrowed my flashdrive for three days, which meant I had nothing...I hope you liked it. Review if you like and hopefully I'll get the next chapter out much much sooner! ~Al**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Four days later Sam and Dean were still hanging out at Bobby's, which was a shock to Julie since she thought for sure they'd disappear the day after arriving. It had been nice to not constantly be either by herself or with Bobby. As much as she loved Bobby he wasn't exactly the most talkative guy in the world. Every morning Julie and Sam would get up before everyone else and talk over a cup of coffee before making breakfast for everyone. The first morning it had gotten a little tense and a little uncomfortable because they both wanted to cook breakfast. The next morning it had been all gravy because they'd managed to make it through the first morning. After breakfast would work on the Chevelle with Dean. The four of them would eat lunch and then Julie and Dean would go back to the yard to work on the car. They'd have a "family' dinner, watch some television, and then they'd all drift off to bed whenever they wanted. Julie liked how the days went but she knew the boys would be leaving soon enough.

It was Friday, which meant Julie had her second doctor's appointment at the hospital in Sioux Falls. For her first appointment, Julie had had Bobby take her since no one would let her go by herself. Today Bobby had relinquished his driving role to Dean, which meant Julie and Dean had to play happy couple for the day. They took the Impala because the Chevelle wasn't quite in running order yet. They left the house around ten so they could make it to her appointment at eleven. The ride had been nice and more relaxing than Julie had anticipated it being. She hated doctors and the idea of going to one made her feel sick to her stomach.

"So, Julie, how are you feeling today?" Dr. Lopez asked her once she was back in the exam room.

"Pretty good." Julie answered from on top of the examination table. Dean was sitting in the chair on the side of the room and paying with the various medical instruments he could reach from his spot. Julie focused on ignoring him.

"How are the headaches?" Julie thought a moment before answering.

"I haven't had one in the past week." The doctor smiled.

"Good, good, and the dizziness?"

"Uh, sometimes when I stand up I get a little lightheaded but overall the dizziness is pretty much gone." The doctor nodded.

"I know last time you came in you said you were experiencing a little bit of nausea. Are you still?" Julie shook her head.

"Not for the past five days."

"And how are you memories coming along?" Julie thought a moment before sighing.

"I'm not sure. I don't really know I'm not remembering something until I try to remember it." Julie said in a slightly upset tone.

"How many times have you forgotten things over the past week?" The doctor asked. Julie thought for a minute.

"Four or five times maybe."

"Those four or five times, has it been more hands on or memories?" Julie thought for a minute.

"I guess I'd say it's been more technical. Like a few days ago I was trying to put together a…carburetor." Julie had been about to say a shotgun but had realized that might sound suspicious to the doctor so she'd replaced a gun with the car part. "And I was fine up until I started thinking and then I seemed to forget everything." The doctor nodded.

"That's perfectly normal. Some patients report memory lapses up to a year or more after their accidents. Some never fully regain all of their memories. It sounds like you're doing very well though." Julie nodded.

"So, does that mean you're releasing me?" Julie asked with a hopeful smile. The doctor smiled at her.

"Let's get a few pictures taken of your head before I answer that." An hour later Julie had had films taken of her head and she was just waiting with Dean for the doctor to come back with the results. She was super nervous. The past few weeks had taught Julie that she did not do well with sitting around and not hunting.

"I really hope he releases me." Julie said with a hopeful smile. Dean sighed and leaned forward to rest his hands on his knees.

"It's only been sixteen days since the accident, Jules. I don't want you to rush back into anything." Julie sighed.

"I get that but I don't think you understand just how hard these past few weeks have been for me."

"No, I really think I do." Julie shook her head.

"I'm not the sit around type of girl. I'm the let's go out and kill some evil sons of bitches type of girl."

"I'm just really uneasy with this. I think you need to take it easy for at least another couple of weeks." Julie glared at him.

"If you try to keep me in the house for another two weeks you'll find I'll have the next twenty five to thirty years for that since I'm going to kill you." She threatened. Dean sighed because he knew Julie was only half joking. Just then the doctor came in "So, what's the verdict?" Julie asked hopefully. The doctor took his seat.

"Your films looked very good." The doctor said with a smile.

"So, no offense to you or anything doc, but can this be the last time I see you?" The doctor analyzed her for a moment.

"If the dizziness increases or gets works, if you have more headaches starting back up or they get worse, if you find yourself unable to remember more things, or it your vision starts acting up you need to be seen right away." Julie nodded. "Now it usually takes a pretty good conk on the head to rupture that exact artery again but for the next few weeks try to avoid hitting your head if at all possible." Julie nodded again. "I'd like to keep you on the anticonvulsant for just a little while longer."

"Not a problem." Julie assured him.

"In one month I'd like to see you back here just to evaluate your progress and see if we need to adjust your medications." Julie nodded immediately. "I am not releasing you from my care but I am releasing you to go back to work and resume any activities that you've refrained from partaking in since the accident." Julie smiled.

"Awesome."

"Are you sure she's okay?" Dean asked. The doctor looked over at him and gave him a kind smile.

"Mr. Monroe, Julie's injuries were severe but she is making the fastest progress I have ever seen. Just keep an eye on her and if any thing seems off, like an uncharacteristic change in mood or spaciness, get her in with a doctor." Dean sighed but nodded.

"Are there are limitations?" Dean asked. Julie glared at him and he ignored her.

"Don't just jump back into things. I want you ease yourself back into it." Julie sighed but nodded. "Any other questions?" Julie shook her head enthusiastically. Dean shook his head a little more hesitantly. "Okay, then you're free to go." Julie stood up with a smile on her face and she shook the doctor's hand. Dean did the same and the two of them left.

Julie was thrilled but she knew Dean wasn't. She knew he was unhappy with what the doctor had said and she knew it was only a matter of time before he stopped bottling it all in and started annoying her. He'd get all protective and try to get her to go on small time bogus cases, like routine salt and burns. Julie didn't mind ghosts and sometimes it did get annoying when she couldn't find the bones she needed to burn but there was no thrill if the case was easy. It actually took him about twenty minutes after leaving the clinic before starting in. Julie didn't really mind because regardless of what he said or how he bitched Julie was free to hunt again and that was awesome news.

"Just because you can go back to work doesn't mean you need to jump right back in." Dean said in a reasonable voice.

"I want to jump right back in, Dean. I do not like sitting around doing nothing."

"You have the Chevelle." Dean reasoned. Julie nodded. "Don't you want to finish it?" Julie nodded again.

"It'll take me a few more days to get her running but then I'm hunting."

"I think you should completely finish it before starting to hunt again." Julie sighed.

"Of course you do, Dean." She said in an annoyed tone.

"What does that mean?"

"It means that no matter when the doctor released me from his care you were going to think it was too soon and that I was rushing back into things." Julie said in an exasperated tone. "I'm a hunter, Dean, which means I belong out there killing evil shit and not stuck in some junk yard spinning my wheels." Dean sighed.

"Okay, that makes sense but you could work simpler cases in the beginning. Just to get your feet wet."

"You don't always know if a case is going to be easy or hard until you're right in the middle of it." Julie reasoned.

"You almost died a few weeks back, Jules. Taking it easy would be the smart thing to do." Dean said as he put the Impala in park outside Bobby's house.

"Then I guess it's safe to say I'm not very smart." Julie said getting out of the car and slamming the door before stomping into the house. Bobby was behind his desk and Sam was in the kitchen. Both looked a there with surprised looks on their faces. A few moments later Dean came into the house.

"How'd it go?" Sam asked.

"Great." Julie said enthusiastically.

"Terrible." Dean said at the same time. Sam looked at them both with a confused look on his face before turning the look to Bobby, who had a remarkably similar look on his face.

"That's…uh…I'm sorry I don't know what to say." Same admitted.

"The doctor released Julie to go back to work." Dean said in a voice that said he questioned the doctor's qualifications.

"That's great!" Sam said smiling at Julie. "Or not." He said dropping the smile as soon as he met Dean's hostile gaze.

"It would be fine if Julie were willing to work simple cases for a few weeks or more just to ease herself back into it."

"And as I've already told Dean, we never know how simple or a complicated a case will be until we're already in it." Julie snapped

"Then maybe you should wait a few more weeks just to be sure you can handle it."

"I got a better idea." Julie said taking a few steps closer to Dean.

"Yeah, and what's that" He yelled walking right up to her so they were almost chest to chest.

"How about I kick your ass?" Julie yelled back.

"Oh, I'd love to see you try." Dean said in a yeah right voice as he looked down at Julie.

"That can be arranged." Julie assured him.

"Uh, guys?" Sam said in an I hate to interrupt voice.

"What?" Julie and Dean yelled at the same time as they looked over at him.

"I was just going to say a case came up while you guys were gone and Julie could work it with us."

"What case?" Dean said in a confused tone.

"I brought Dad's old cell phone in from the Impala last night to charge it and someone called from a storage company in Buffalo saying someone broke into a storage locker dad evidently had up there."

"I never knew anything about any locker." Dean said in an annoyed tone.

"Neither did I but Bobby confirmed that dad had one in New York." Sam said. "The case should be pretty simple but it would give you the chance to see that Julie really is fine."

"I'm not some five year old that needs her daddy to make sure she can handle it." Julie snapped.

"I think it's a great idea." Dean said smiling down at Julie. Julie looked up at him and glared.

"Fine, but once we get through this case I'm off on my own and you can't complain."

"Deal." Dean agreed.

"I'm going to go pack."

"You do that." Julie glared once more at Dean before stomping up the stairs. "I'm going to get the car loaded." Dean snapped at Sam before storming out of the house. Sam turned to Bobby with an uneasy look on his face.

"At least she's better." He said in a hopeful voice with a hopeful look on his face. Bobby just rolled his eyes and walked away. Sam sighed and the hopeful look vanished. "This should be fun." He said sarcastically before starting to get his things together.

**IN THE IMPALA**

Julie was annoyed with the situation. She did not want to be babysat but she knew the only way to appease Dean and to keep him from following her all over the damn country was to go on this hunt with him. Once Dean saw that Julie was perfectly capable of handling herself hopefully he'd back off a little. Although she wasn't completely sure this counted as a case since there might or might not be any monster or supernatural bad guy that needed killing. It could just be a simple case of larceny. You know, some bored high school boys decided to break in and see what they could find. Granted there was the possibility that whoever broke in might have been hurt because John Winchester wasn't the type of guy to leave his assets unprotected. Chances were pretty good it was just a couple of bored teenagers. Granted if they took anything there's a good chance some supernatural object with some very bad juju working on it might be floating around but that seemed like the worst case scenario to Julie.

Being in a car with Dean is never a fun experience. In fact it is downright obnoxious most of the time. Being in the same car with Dean for twelve hours at a time is almost a death sentence. He listens to the same five albums on cassette and sings loudly along with them. Half the time he's singing a different song than the one playing because he doesn't like taking the time to fast forward through the cassette. Every gas station they stop at he gets out and hits on anything with breasts He's always more concerned with getting laid than anything else. He's sexist. He's arrogant. He thinks he's adorable. He's way too overprotective. He likes to be in charge at all times. Oh, and he thinks a bump on the head deserves bed rest upwards of a month. In order to keep from killing him the entire time they were in the car, Julie had to remind herself that once this case was over she would never have to see Dean again if she didn't want to. It was one more case and then they would go their separate ways. Dean was just lucky she didn't have a care; otherwise she would have left his ass a long time ago.

"Dude! Shut up!" Julie yelled when Dean's off tune singing distracted her from being able to read. He stopped singing instantly and looked at her offensively in the rearview mirror. Sam turned back to look at her with a raised eyebrow look, which cause Julie to sigh. She lowered her book. "I'm trying to concentrate and I can't do that with you butchering Plant's singing." Julie said referring to the Led Zeppelin song Dean was attempting to sing.

"I am an excellent singer." Dean said in a defensive tone. Julie narrowed her eyes at him, even though he couldn't see her.

"No you're not." She insisted. "You sound like a cat with its freaking tail caught in a grinder." She snapped.

"I do not!"

"You kinda do." Sam said in a voice that clearly said he hated to side with Julie but he felt he had to.

"I thought it was supposed to be bros before hoes." Dean told his brother. Julie smacked Dean upside the head "Ouch!" He said looking in the rearview mirror at Julie with a pissed off look on his face. Julie pursed her lips and glared at him.

"Don't call me a hoe."

"It's an expression."

"Yeah, so is eat shit and die but I'm okay with you doing it."

"If you two are going to fight this entire time, I'm going to steal a car." Sam told them. Julie sighed and leaned back against her seat again. Dean stopped looking in the rearview mirror and focused on the road again. "Thank you."

"How did you guys not know your dad kept a storage locker?" Julie asked after a few minutes of silence and her being unable to get back into her book. Both boys sighed.

"Dad didn't exactly tell us everything." Dean said. Sam nodded in agreement. "I guess he never thought we needed to know. Surely you remember how he was." Julie thought about it before nodding.

"But he always told me what I wanted to know." She reasoned.

"He liked you." Dean told her with a smirk. Julie rolled her eyes. "Does your dad tell you everything?" Julie shrugged.

"I haven't talked to my dad in over five years."

"Why not?" Sam asked. Julie sighed and looked out the window.

"Apparently he wanted me to get out of this life and go to college. He got pissed when I told him I didn't want to do that. He told me if I wanted to hunt I couldn't stay with him." Julie looked back at Sam and gave him a small tight lipped smile. "So, I split and haven't talked to him since.

"I'm sorry." Sam said. Julie shrugged.

"His loss." She said in a defiant tone. "How long till we get there?"

"Another twenty minutes." Dean said. Julie nodded and went back to looking out the window.

Twenty-five minutes later Dean parked outside the storage facility. The three got out and made sure to have some basic weapons on them just in case. Sam checked in with the guy up front and asked for clarification on where their father's locker was and then came back to the other two. He led them down to this basement like area and to the locker that was their father's. The first thing Julie noticed after Sam opened the door was a Devil's Trap drawn on the floor in red and some footprints made in the dust and in what looked suspiciously like blood.

Dean kneeled down touched what looked like wire running across the locker. Sam followed the line to a shelf where it led to this animal skull with a shotgun protruding from its mouth. "Whoever broke in here got tagged." Sam said with a scoff. Julie nodded, even though no one was paying attention to her really. "Dear old dad." Dean said sarcastically. Julie looked around the place and saw what looked like a bunch of junk to her. She was sure some of it was useful and some of it was probably just in there for sentimental reasons but it looked like junk at first glance.

"I got two sets of boot treads here. It looks like it was a two man job." Dean said. "And our friend with the buckshot in him looks like he kept walking." Dean said before sighing and standing up.

"So, what's the deal here?" Sam asked as him and Dean went further into the locker.

Julie opted to stay towards the front and started rooting through some of the things up front. She found old trophies from when Sam and Dean were kids. She found a couple of photographs. She found some things that looked like trash to her and some things that looked like they could be worth a lot of money. The thing that got her attention though was the picture of Julie, Claire, Sam, and Dean from when they were kids. She barley remembered it being taken. All four of them were sitting on one of the beds in the dive of a motel room they were staying in. They were in a circle with cards on the bed in front of them and some in each of their hands. They were all smiling. When they were kids the four of them had passed the time by playing various card games. Dean's favorite was poker. Julie's favorite had been blackjack. Sam favored crazy eights. Claire had always liked go fish. Jace was probably off reading some book ignoring the others. Julie smiled at the picture because it was one of the few she had from her childhood after her mother died.

There was another photo that caught Julie's eye. It had been behind the one of the four kids. Julie picked up and smiled at it sadly. It had been taken when Julie was about fifteen by Claire. Claire had just gotten this disposable camera and was having a field day with it. The picture was of John and Julie cleaning their guns. They were both smiling and Julie was surprised to see how close they looked, even though it was just a photo. Julie quickly looked around to see if the boys were looking at her before taking both photos and pocketing them. The one of Julie and John was the only picture she had of him. He'd always been like a second father to her and she'd loved him, sometimes more than she'd loved her own father. He'd always trusted Julie to take care of herself and had always supported her no matter what. Once her father told her to get lost, Julie got even closer to John. Neither Sam nor Dean knew how close she actually was to their father. The fact that he was dead killed her.

"Hey, Jules, come take a look at this." Sam called from the back of the locker. Julie quickly walked back to what looked like a cage. There had been a chain on the door and Julie assumed a padlock since the chain had been cut. When she walked in she saw a goldmine of weapons.

"Holy crap." She said unable to stop herself. "If the government got their hands on all this they could invade Russia."

"Look at this. He had landmines. " Dean said in shock. "Which they didn't take." He added as an afterthought. "Or the guns." He added. "I guess they knew what they were after."

"Which was what, exactly?" Julie asked in an annoyed tone. Who breaks into a storage locker and leaves all the best stuff?

"Hey, check this out." Sam said aiming his flashlight at a set of shelves with boxes on them. Julie and Dean walked closer. "You see these symbols? That's binding magic."

"Son of a bitch." Julie said when she realized what that meant. "These are curse boxes." Julie said in amazement.

"Curse boxes?" Dean asked. "That's supposed to keep the evil mojo in, right?" He clarified. "Kind of like that Pandora deal."

"Yeah, they're built to contain the power of the cursed object." Sam explained.

"Dad's journal did mention various cursed objects, fetishes, and such but it never mentioned what he did with them."

"This must be his toxic waste dump." Sam guessed.

"And today is our lucky day." Julie said kneeling down in front of the shelves where there was an empty spot. She turned back to the boys with a grave look on her face. "One of the boxes is missing."

"Great. " Sam said in a voice that clearly said that was anything but great. Julie agreed. That was majorly bad.

"Maybe they didn't open it." Dean said in a hopeful tone. Julie looked at him like he was insane.

"Yeah, because that's the kind of luck we have." Julie said sarcastically.

"Let's see if they have any security cameras." Sam suggested. Dean sighed and nodded.

Forty-five minutes later, the four had the information they needed. Two guys had showed up the night before and parked right in front of a security camera. This made it easy to get their license plate number and that made it super easy to track them. With a few well worded lies, Julie was able to get the information they needed. Dean had tried to sweet talk the girl and when that hadn't work Julie had taken the phone and surmised that the woman on the other end had recently been cheated on. Julie said she needed the information because she suspected her jackass of a boyfriend was cheating on her with her cousin. She told the woman her boyfriend had gotten out of that car and some chick had been driving. After hearing that, the woman was much more helpful and gave Julie all the information she wanted. Sometimes a woman doesn't want to be wooed. Sometimes all she really wants is for someone to get some justice, even if it wasn't here.

The four of them drove to this brick apartment building with the car sitting out front. The plates were Connecticut with the last three being 880. It was their car. Dean parked the Impala and the two boys got out first. Julie was getting ready to get out but Dean shook his head at her. Julie looked at him with a confused look on her face. He gave her a sarcastic smile and shook his head. That's when it occurred to her. She wasn't going to be allowed in.

"You're not serious." Julie said. When he still didn't move away from her door she looked at him in amazement. "Oh my god, you are serious!" She exclaimed in disgusted outrage. "You seriously want me to sit in the car?" She demanded. He smiled and nodded.

"We don't know what we're going to find up there. I'd feel better if you stayed in the car."

"How dangerous can two morons be?"

"They may be stupid but that says nothing about their aim."

"Yeah, so you need me as backup. Three against two is better than two against two." Dean shook his head.

"You're staying in the car."

"How am I supposed to prove myself to you if you won't let me?" Julie demanded.

"Get creative." Dean snapped. "Let's go, Sammy." Dean said walking away.

"Sam!" Julie shrieked when she realized he wasn't sticking up for her. He turned back and gave her an apologetic smile and mouthed the word sorry to her before going inside the building behind the Dean. Julie sighed and leaned back against the seat in annoyance. "Why is he always such a prick?" She asked more to herself than anything. Fifteen minutes later both boys came running back downstairs. "Did you get it?" Julie asked. Both boys nodded. "What the hell is it?" Sam held something up and Julie looked at in with a confused look on her face. "Is that a rabbit's foot?" Sam nodded. "Well, that can't be good." She surmised.

Another ten minutes later, Julie found herself still in the backseat of her car with Sam sitting up front and Dean missing. He'd run into a store saying he had a theory. When Julie and Sam tried to find out what that theory was he told them to give him a few and disappeared. Julie really hated when Dean did that. He just vanished without so much as two words of explanation. One might think she'd get used to it but she never really did. All she got was more and more annoyed. Dean was the type of person who was more of a lone wolf but he didn't really do well being by himself. He loved his little brother more than the world and he cared about other people too much to work on his own.

"What do you think he's doing in there?" Julie asked Sam leaning over the front seat of the car. Sam looked over at her and shrugged. "What do you think is the story with the rabbit's foot?"

"No clue but maybe Bobby will know." Julie sighed.

"I am seriously annoyed that we don't know anything."

"Oh we know something."

"We do?" Sam nodded. "What?"

"We know that someone wanted this thing." Sam said holding it up. "And we know that Dean has an idea."

"Not really helping, Sammy." Julie told him patting him on the arm. Sam sighed and nodded in agreement just as Dean got back into the car with a paper bag.

"Can't find anything on it in dad's journal." Sam told Dean when he got back into the car.

"What's in the bag?" Julie asked indicating the paper bag. Dean smiled and held up a bunch of scratch off lottery tickets.

"Dean, come on." Sam complained with an annoyed sigh.

"What?" Dean demanded. "That was my gun he was aiming at your head and my gun don't jam!" Dean said defensively. The boys had explained what had happened in the apartment to Julie. Apparently the bad guys were having a lot of good luck until Sam picked up the rabbit's foot and then the bad guy's good luck went back and Sam and Dean's luck had gone very good. "So, that was a lucky break. Not to mention them taking themselves out." Dean threw in. "Here, scratch one." Dean said handing Sam a lottery ticket. "Come on Sam. Scratch and win!" Dean said in a cheerleader like voice.

"This is stupid." Sam said snatching the lottery ticket.

"Come on Sam!" Julie said excitedly. Sam looked at her oddly. "What?" Julie demanded in an offended tone. "I really like gambling." She said in a voice that offered a slight explanation.

"Dean it has to be cursed somehow." Sam said as he scratched. "Otherwise dad wouldn't have locked it up." He said handing the ticket back to Dean.

"$1200." Dean said in a surprised voice. "You just won $1200." He said excitedly. "Haha, WHOO!" He cheered. "I don't know man, doesn't seem that cursed to me." He reasoned.

"Do it again!" Julie said in a giddy voice as Dean handed Sam a lottery ticket.

"You two are so juvenile."

"Yeah, and you're paying for lunch." Julie said as Sam scratched another ticket. This continued for another ten minutes and only ended when all the tickets were scratched off and Bobby had called. "How much did he get?" Julie asked as Dean laid the tickets out on the hood of the Impala. Dean did math in the air.

"Fifteen grand." Dean said happily. Julie smiled and clapped her hands together excitedly as she looked up towards Sam, who was on the phone with Bobby. Sam kneeled over and picked up a solid gold watch. He turned and showed it to the others. "Awesome." Dean mouthed to his younger brother.

"What'd Bobby say?" Julie asked Sam. Sam sighed miserably.

"That it isn't a luck charm." Sam said.

"Oh I beg to differ." Dean said ecstatically. Julie rolled her eyes and smacked his arm. "Stop hitting me."

"He said that it brings a run of good luck up until you lose it. Then your luck turns so bad you're dead inside a week." Sam threw in before the two could start arguing again.

"So don't lose it." Dean said in a voice that said he clearly had the situation all figured out.

"Everyone loses it, Dean, or at least that's what Bobby says." Sam snapped at his brother.

"So how do we break the curse?" Julie asked. Sam shrugged.

"Bobby is looking into it." Julie nodded and walked up to a very uneasy Sam. She stood in front of him and put her hands on his biceps and gave him a friendly, reassuring smile.

"Bobby will find a way to break the curse." She assured him. He sighed. "Just keep the damn thing in your pocket at all times, okay?" He nodded. She smiled widely at him. "Let's get some breakfast."

"Can we use the foot while we have it?" Dean asked coming up to the two of them.

"A little sensitivity, Dean." Julie snapped at him. Dean glared at her. "Sam just found out that he dies if he loses the damn thing. He doesn't need you acting like an insensitive git."

"Who says git?" Dean asked.

"Who is more worried about money and luck than their brother's life?" Julie threw back at him.

"That's not what I'm saying." Dean said getting defensive.

"Can we please just eat?" Sam snapped and walked away towards the diner. Julie and Dean watching his retreating back for a moment before Julie lifted her hand and backhanded Dean's arm as hard as she could.

"Stop hitting me!"

"Stop being an ass!" She snapped back at him before following in Sam's footsteps.

The diner was literally exactly what you would expect from a diner. It kind of looked like a Denny's or an IHOP. The entire way in Dean was trying to convince Sam that we should hit up Vegas. He started talking about some guy called Rain Man but Julie had no clue what that meant so she stayed out of it. She wanted to smack Dean for once again being an ass but she figured she'd pushed him to his limit for the day. If Julie were Sam, she probably would have kicked Dean's ass a million times by now. Sam had at least a good three or four inches on Dean. Plus he looked like he was in better shape. Maybe Julie was wrong but if the two got into an all out death match, Julie's money was on Sam. In order to avoid beating Dean, Julie tried to tune out their conversation. That was the only way for his words not to annoy her.

Sam walked up and asked for a table for three and they were informed they were the one millionth customer. The guy announced it in this loud, perky voice like they'd just won the presidency. A bell sounded and this big check like thing was dragged out and handed to the boys. Julie stood in the middle as Sam and Dean held onto the check like thingy announcing them as the one millionth customer. All the other employees came out of the back and there was this loud pop over their heads as confetti, tinsel, and balloons rained down on them. Some waitress with a camera started snapping pictures with a digital camera. Sam looked downright annoyed and disgusted at this huge display. Dean looked like he was having the time of his life and smiled widely like he'd just won some big honor. Julie stood between the two with her face looking off to the left in all the pictures. She was pretty sure none of the pictures were capture how truly annoyed she was.

After the big production, the three were showed to a booth. Julie sat in the corner with Dean beside her and Sam across from them. Sam opened his laptop and started doing research. The waitress came over and took their order. Julie ordered a burger, fries, onion rings, and a nice big soda. Dean's order was remarkably similar. Sammy got a salad. Julie was a lot like Dean, which was probably why they didn't get along. They both loved fattening greasy food. Sam was the healthy one of the group. He ate salads and drank water. Their food came and they ate and then Dean ordered ice cream. When the waitress brought the ice cream she also brought the check. Sam placed a couple bills into the folder and went back to doing research.

"Bobby's right." Sam said in a depressed tone as Dean took one of his last bites of ice cream. "The lore on this thing goes way back. Pure hoodoo." He said just before snapping the screen shut. "You can't just cut one off any rabbit. It has to be in a cemetery, under a full moon, on a Friday the 13th."

"That's obnoxiously detailed." Julie complained as Dean finished his ice cream.

"I say from now on we only go to places with Bigerson's." He said referring to the name of the diner.

"Dude, seriously." Julie snapped at Dean with an exasperated look on her face.

"What?" Dean said. "Oh crap!" Dean said grabbing his head with a pained look on his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose as Sam chuckled at his obvious pain. Julie smiled completely delighted with the situation.

"Ah, the wonders of brain freezes." She said in a voice that clearly said Dean was getting what he deserved.

"Can I freshen you up?" A waitress asked coming over to the table. Sam looked up at her slightly surprised. Julie looked up at her and instantly hated her. She had short almost black hair, a pleasant face, and probably a rocking body under that ugly outfit. She smiled in a flirty manner at Sam.

"Yeah, sure." Sam said moving his coffee cup over to the edge of the table. "Thanks." He smiled up at her and she smiled down at him, not really paying too much attention to what she was doing. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Oh!" The waitress said in surprise as the coffee started leaking.

"It's alright." Sam said as the waitress pulled out a towel and started mopping up the mess she'd made. "It's alright. I got it." He assured her as she wiped off the bottom of his glass.

"It's no trouble, really." The waitress said still flirting. Once the mess was cleaned up she smiled once more at Sam in a flirty way before walking away. Sam and Dean both watched her as she swung her hips as she walked away. Julie rolled her eyes. Clearly the dirty skank was fishing for guys to do just that.

"Oh please." She snapped more to herself than anyone else with an annoyed look on her face.

"Dude, if you were ever going to get lucky…" Dean said with a suggestive smile at his brother.

"Shut up." Sam said in a slightly embarrassed voice. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Yes, please shut up." She said more to herself because neither guy was paying her any attention, which annoyed her for some reason. Just then Sam went to pick up his coffee for a drink but he knocked the mug over. The hot coffee leaked all over the table and down on to his lap. He stood up quickly to get away from it and ended up knocking into a waiter, which caused the tray to spill and food to go everywhere. Julie looked up at Sam with a shocked look on her face, while Dean and Sam just looked confused.

"How is that good?" Dean said in a confused voice.

"Check your pocket!" Julie said in an urgent tone to Sam. Sam quickly did as she asked and came up empty. "Stupid slut." Julie said just as it hit Sam and Dean what had happened.

"Son of a bitch." Dean said as he started to stand up. Julie pushed him to go faster and the three of them took off running out of the restaurant.

Dean was in the lead, followed by Sam, and Julie was behind them both. They reached the parking lot and suddenly Sam stumbled over something, maybe his own two feet, and went down to the ground. Julie stopped suddenly and looked down at Sam with wide eyes, and her mouth was wide open. She put her hands over her mouth and did nothing but stare at him. Dean stopped running when he heard his brother fall to the ground.

"Wow!" Dean said turning back around. "You suck." He said walking back to Sam and helping his brother stand up.

"Are you okay?" Julie asked in a worried voice as she took in Sam's ripped jeans and bloody knees. Sam sighed.

"Define okay." He said in an annoyed tone.

"So what? Now your luck turns bad?" Dean asked.

"I guess." Sam said in a slightly worried tone. Dean thought about that for a moment before starting to walk away.

"I wonder how bad." He said more to himself.

"Come on, Sammy." Julie said putting a hand on his arm and steering him towards the Impala. Dean was already behind the wheel, so Sam climbed into the passenger seat and Julie climbed in back. "This is bad." Julie said, which pretty much summed it all up.

"I say we go visit the guys that stole this thing in the first place. Chances are good the bitch that stole this from us was the same bitch that hired them in the first place." Dean said as he cranked the engine over. It took them a few minutes to get back to the apartment building. Sam and Dean got out and before anyone could say anything to her Julie climbed out. "Stay." Dean told her in a firm voice. Julie glared at him.

"A, I am not a dog, and B, Sam is sort of useless to you at this point."

"Hey!" Sam exclaimed.

"I'm sorry sweetie but you are." Julie said in a hard this is facts voice. "If you want backup, you need me." Dean stared at her for a few moments before sighing and handing her a handgun Julie smiled and took it. "Excellent choice."

"Do as I say." Dean told her. Julie rolled her eyes.

"Whatever you say, Dean-o." Julie said as she started walking towards the building. "Are you guys coming?" Julie demanded when she reached the door. Sam walked over to her. Dean sighed and looked up at the sky for a moment.

"I am so going to regret this." He said to himself as he ran over to the door his brother and friend had just disappeared through.

The stairwell smelled like cat piss and cigarette smoke. The elevator looked like it had seen much, much better days, which meant they took the stairs to the sixth floor. The stairwell wasn't air conditioned, which meant they were sweaty messes by the time they got to the sixth floor. They proceeded down the hall to apartment 6M and then they all checked their weapons. Dean looked at everyone to make sure they were ready and they both nodded their heads. Dean then just opened the door and walked in. There was a man with very little hair sitting on a chair with a bottle of whisky and depressing Mexican music playing. The apartment was about as gross as most the motels the trio stayed in and smell vaguely of death. On the way up they learned that one of the robbers had died earlier that day by taking an accidental grilling fork to the back of the head. Julie assumed the death smell was from him.

"Oh man." The man in the chair said in a depressed tone. "What do you want?"

"Heard about your friend. That's bad luck." Dean said walking further into the room. Sam stayed back behind the arm chair close to the door and Julie stayed by his side in case he needed someone with no luck to try and help him out because of his bad luck.

"Piss off." The most likely completely intoxicated guy said to Dean.

"We know someone hired you to steal the rabbit's foot." Dean told the man. "We know because the bitch stole it back from us." The man started to laugh like this was funniest thing he'd ever heard. Julie started to bring her gun up but Sam's hand on hers made her stop. Julie sighed and lowered her gun back down.

"Listen man, this is serious." Sam started to say as he took a step forward. His foot caught a cord, which pulled a CD player off the shelf. Sam turned around to grab it and knocked into a lamp. Sam went to the ground holding both of them.

"Sam, you okay?" Dean asked not turning around.

"Yeah, I'm good." Sam said quickly from the ground. Julie rushed over and held Sam stand back up. She wanted to laugh and she would have laughed if she didn't know that the reason all these bad things were happening was because some bad mojo was out there trying to do Sam in.

"I want you tell us her name." Dean told the guy walking closer to him.

"Screw you." The guy said. Julie sucked in some air at the words and shook her head.

"He shouldn't have said that." She said to Sam in a whisper.

"It wasn't a freak accident that killed your partner." Dean told the man with a slightly evil smirk on his face. "It was the rabbit's foot."

"You're crazy man." The man scoffed at Dean.

"You know I'm not." Dean told him. "You saw what happened, what it did. All the flukes, all the luck. When you lose the foot, that luck goes bad; really bad. That's what killed your friend and my brother here is next." Dean informed the man. "And who knows how many innocent people after that." Julie saw what Dean was doing. He was putting a guilt trip on this guy for putting that damn thing back out into the world. "Now, if you don't help us stop this thing that puts those deaths on your head." The guy looked up at Dean with a fearful look on his face. "Now, I can read people. And I get it. You're thief and a scumbag. That's fine. But you're not a killer, are you?" Dean asked. The man thought about it for a moment before shaking his head.

"Her name is Lugosi." Dean nodded and walked out of the room.

"Thank you." Julie told the guy. "Come on Sam." Sam nodded once at the guy and followed Julie downstairs.

When they got outside Dean was on the phone, most likely with Bobby since he was talking about the foot. Sam stopped walking and Julie turned back to look at him. He lifted up his foot and there was gum on his shoe. Julie smiled at him sympathetically as he started trying to scrape the gum off using the drain. Julie looked over at Dean and when she turned back around she saw this sad look on Sam's face. She looked down and saw his bare foot. Julie sighed. The shoe had fallen down the drain. Julie heard Dean get off the phone with Bobby.

"What?" Dean asked when he saw his brother's sad face. Sam pouted and hung his shoulders in an I give up sort of way.

"I lost my shoe." He said in a depressed tone. Dean sighed and rolled his eyes before turning and getting in the car.

"We'll get you a new one." Julie promised Sam as she steered him towards the car. They took their usual seats. "What did Bobby say?" Julie asked leaning forward to rest her arms on the front seat and pulled her head between the boys.

"He found a cleansing ritual for once we get the foot back."

"And how do we plan on getting it back?" Julie asked.

"Bobby thinks the bitch's real name is Bela Talbot. He's going to look into finding her." Julie nodded. They got to a motel and Bobby called Dean back. Dean talked for just a few minutes before hanging up. He stopped in front of the motel "Alright, Bobby has it on pretty good authority that this Bela chick is in Queens." Sam and Julie nodded.

"So what are we doing here?" Sam asked.

"You, my brother, are staying here. I don't want your bad luck getting us killed."

"What about me?" Julie asked.

"You're going to stay here and make sure Sam doesn't get Sam killed." Julie sighed but nodded. Ten minutes later they were checked into a room. "Alright, Sam, you sit in this chair and do not move until I get back. It should take me about two hours. Julie, make sure he doesn't move." Julie nodded. Dean turned and walked out of the room.

"What am I supposed to do?" Sam asked Julie.

"Uh, nothing." She said in an I'm sorry voice. "You want to watch TV?"

"Sure." He said miserably. Julie nodded and grabbed the remote.

"Maybe you should sit on the bed instead." She said eyeing the distance between the TV and Sam. Sam sighed and did as she suggested. She smiled at him. "Great!" She said in false enthusiasm. This was anything but great.

_**The Next Morning**_

Julie had woken up to find Sam back in his chair looking around the room. The light was off. She looked at the clock and saw that it was hardly morning since it was only 4:30. Sighing she got off the bed and grabbed the bottle of water she'd gotten out of the vending machine the night before. She was taking a sip when the air conditioner gave out. She looked at it with a come on get real look on her face and sighed. Sam's bad luck was seriously bad and it was starting to screw her over to. It wasn't necessarily hot, actually was kind of chilly, but the air felt nice. It was going to get hot in just a matter of minutes.

"Oh come on." Sam complained. "I didn't even…" He stopped. Julie looked at him sympathetically. He'd sounded so sad and so put out that she couldn't help but feel bad for him.

"It'll be okay, Sammy." Julie assured him with a smile. "Until it is though, I'm going to take a bath. Yell if you need anything." Sam nodded miserably as she walked past him and into the bathroom.

Since Julie's bags were in the car, all she could really do was wash her hair with the horribly quality shampoos and conditioners supplied by this dive a motel. As she was taking her shower she had this flashback to finding Claire on the floor. She wasn't remembering everything since her accident but for some reason she felt like the memory should be bothering her more. It almost felt like since the accident she'd forgotten how painful her sister's death had been. She remembered that time of her life remarkably well when compared to every other time of her life but it was like the emotions attached to the memories weren't so bad. She remembered the way she'd avoided bathroom since that night and she remembered how any mention of Claire, or even any thought of her triggered a painful response but since the accident the emotions attached hadn't been quite so strong. She wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

She wanted to take a longer shower than she ended up taking but she was worried about leaving Sam alone so she cut the water and got out. She dried her hair and forced a comb through her long locks before somehow managing to pull it back into a messy ponytail that looked presentable. She put her dirty clothes back on and prayed that Dean would hurry up and get back so she could put clean clothes on. She brushed her teeth using the toothbrush and toothpaste she'd gotten out of the vending machine and then rinsed her mouth out. She balled all of her towels up and tossed them back into the tub.

"Hey Sammy, when Dean gets back we should go for pancakes." She said walking out of the room. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw two men she didn't recognize standing in the room. One man had sort of curly grey hair and the other had short dark brown hair and a matching mustache. Sam was unconscious on the floor. Julie's gun was under her pillow, which was across the room. The men looked at her with surprised looks on their faces. Julie was pretty sure her look betrayed the same surprise. Julie made a lunge for her bed but she was caught around the middle by one of the men and tossed back onto the floor. She was between one of the beds and long dresser holding the TV. She looked up as the grey haired man walk over to her and grabbed her roughly by the arms and dragged her up. She head butted the man and was going to make a run for her gun again when she was caught in the back of the head by the butt of a gun. It didn't completely knock her out but it disoriented her enough that the men were easily able to die her up to a chair and then Sam up to another chair. Dean was going to freak when he got back.

"You do know when I get out of this chair, I'm going to kick your ass, don't you?" Julie told the men once she started to come to a little more. The men chuckled at her and the grey haired one got in her face.

"It's not you we want. It's your friend."

"You hurt one hair on his head and I'll be the least of your problems." Julie promised them.

"Is that so?" The grey hair man asked. Julie smiled and nodded. "Good to know." And with that he slapped duct tape over her mouth. Julie could do nothing but glare as Sam started to come to.

"Ah, he's awake." The brown haired man said. "We didn't even have to touch you." He informed Sam. "You just went spastic and dropped all on your own." He looked over and saw Julie tied up. His face tightened in anger. Julie tried to tell him with her eyes that she was okay but he was allowed to kill the bastards if he wanted to.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Sam asked in a confused voice. The grey haired man snapped his finger to shut Sam up.

"I used to think your friend Gordon sent me." Sam sighed at that name.

"Oh Gordon…" Sam said in an exasperated tone. "Oh come on."

"Because he asked me to track you down and put a bullet in your brain." The man said turning away from Sam. Julie's stomach rolled at those words and she fought against her bindings.

"Great, that sounds like him." Sam said in an annoyed this is my luck tone.

"But as it turns out…I'm on a mission from God." The man said walking over to Sam and smacking him. Julie, despite being taped up with tape over her mouth, tried to fight her bindings and started screaming indiscernible words through the tape. Julie watched as the man continued to hit Sam until his cheek started to bleed and he passed out. Tears leaked from her eyes as she fought as hard as she could against the bindings. Once Sam passed out the man turned to Julie. "Shut up!" He yelled and when she didn't he walked closer to her and smacked her. "I said shut up." Julie stopped yelling and put her tongue to better use, which meant she was licking the tape to loosen it. The brown haired man threw a glass of water into Sam's face, which woke him up. "You were a part of that demon plan to open that gate, weren't you?" The man demanded of Sam.

"We did everything we could to stop it." Sam told him, which got the man off the bed and in his face.

"Lie, lie, lie, lie." The man said cutting him off. "You were in on it. You know what their next move is too, don't you?"

"No, I don't, okay?" Sam said. "You're wrong about all of this."

"Where are they going to hit us next?" The man asked Sam. Sam sighed, which got him hit again. "Where?" The man shouted. Julie started trying to loosen her bindings. "Gordon told me about you, Sam, about your powers. You're some kind of weird psychic freak."

"No, not anymore." Sam said. "No powers, no visions, no nothing. Not since yellow eyes died." Julie looked at Sam in confusion. He actually was a psychic freak at some point? Sam got hit again.

"Now, no more lying." The grey haired man told Sam as if he was chastising a five year old. "There's an army of demons out there pushing on a world that's already on the brink."

"He doesn't know anything you fuckers!" Julie yelled once the tape was loosened.

"We can't take chances." The grey haired man said pointing a gun at Sam's head.

"Now wait a minute, Kubrick." The brown haired man said touching his partner's arm.

"No, ask yourself why we're here, Creedy." The man called Kubrick said to the brown haired man. "Because you saw a picture on the web? Because we chose this motel instead of another? Luck like that doesn't just happen."

"Look, I can explain all of that." Sam started to say but was silenced by Kubrick.

"It's God, Creedy." Kubrick surmised.

"It isn't God, you sick delusional fucker!" Julie yelled at him. "It's a damn rabbit's foot."

"Shut up!" Kubrick yelled at her.

"I will not shut up you psychotic freak show!" Julie yelled.

"I said shut up" And she was punched across the face. Her face hurt like hell but she looked up at the man defiantly.

"You're about to kill an innocent person." She told him. "All because a psycho like Gordon Walker told you to."

"Sam Winchester is the Antichrist." Kubrick said simply.

"Yeah, well then I guess I'm mermaid." She said in a sarcastic voice, getting slapped again. A few tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Leave her alone!" Sam yelled. "You want me, I'm right here!" Kubrick gave Julie one last disgusted look and went back to Sam.

"This is destiny." Kubrick said putting the gun back up to Sam's head. Sam scrunched his eyes, as did Julie, and then she heard another cock followed by a voice.

"Nope, no destiny." She opened her eyes and saw Dean with a gun trained on Kubrick. "Just a rabbit's foot." He was smirking.

"Put the gun down son, or you're going to be scraping brain off the wall." Kubrick told him.

"Oh, this thing?" Dean asked waving his gun around.

"Yeah, that thing?" Kubrick said. Dean shrugged.

"Okay." He said lowering his gun.

"Dean Winchester, you pick that damn gun up right now!" Julie yelled at him.

"But you see there's something about me that you don't know." Dean said in a cocky attitude completely ignoring Julie.

"What would that be?" Kubrick asked. Dean picked up a pen and smiled at Kubrick.

"It's my lucky day."With that he tossed the pen and it jammed itself right in the barrel of Kubrick's gun. Julie and Sam stared in shock as Dean started laughing. "Oh god did you see that shot?" He asked as Creedy came at him like he was going to punch Dean. Dean bobbed a little to his right and Creedy went right past him into the wall behind Dean, where he knocked himself out. "I'm amazing." Dean said as he picked up the remote and chucked it at Kubrick, hitting him in the forehead and knocking him out. "I'm Batman." Dean after Kubrick fell.

"Yeah, you're Batman." Sam said sarcastically.

"Could you please untie us now?" Julie demanded. Dean quickly untied Sam and then rushed over to Julie.

"Looks like you took a few shots to the head." He said once she was untied as he examined her face.

"I'm fine." She insisted.

"You sure?" She nodded. "No dizziness or…"

"Dean, I'm fine. Can we get rid of that damn rabbit's foot before one of us gets killed?" Dean sighed but nodded.

_**At the cemetery**_

"Alright, that should do it." Sam said standing up after putting the ingredients into the fire. Julie stood off to the side trying to ignore the pain in her head. She knew it was from getting slugged and she knew it was just a headache but she'd been unable to take any painkillers since that would have tipped Dean off that she was having a headache and he would insist on taking her to the hospital to have her grapefruit checked out. Dean stood across from Sam and he was scratching off more lottery tickets. Julie would have told him off for being such an obnoxious jackass but that would have taken too much effort and would have involved her raising her voice. She needed silence until the boys were distracted enough to take painkillers. Julie figured if the headache didn't go away or got worse then she'd tell the boys and get checked out. As long as it was manageable and in no way getting worse she was going to keep her mouth shut.

"Dean…" Sam started to chastise him.

"Hey, back off jinx." Dean snapped at his brother as he scratched off his last ticket. "I'm bringing home the bacon." Dean smiled happily and put the lottery tickets into the pocket of his coat. "Alright, say goodbye wascally wabbit." Dean said pulling out the foot. Julie rolled her eyes at his juvenile behavior. Then Julie heard a gun cock.

"I think you'll find that belongs to me." A voice said. Julie turned and saw the diner bitch. She walked up so she was standing beside Sam. "Or whatever." Bela corrected herself. Julie glared at her. "Put the foot down hunny." She told Dean.

"No." Dean said defiantly. "You're not going to shoot anybody. See I happen to be able to read people. Okay you're a thief fine but you're not a killer." Bela moved her gun to Sam and fired off a shot. Sam instantly went to the ground. Julie kneeled down next to him and searched until she found the hole in his left shoulder. Dean looked at Sam in concern.

"Son of…" He turned back to Bela.

"Back off, tiger, back off!" She yelled. "You make one more move and I'll pull the trigger. You've got the luck, Dean. You I can't hit but your brother, him I can't miss." Dean looked back at Sam with a really pissed off look crossed with a concerned look.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He yelled at Bela. "You don't just go around shooting people like that!" He yelled at her. Julie was applying pressure to Sam's wound otherwise she probably would have killed the bitch.

"Relax, it's a shoulder wound." She said defensively. "I can aim."

"So can I." Julie mumbled as she went to grab for her gun. Sam shook his head at her and she sighed as she glared back at Bela.

"Put the rabbit's foot on the ground now."

"Alright!" Dean yelled holding his hands up defensively. "Take it easy." He started to lower the rabbit's foot slowly to the ground as Bela kept her gun trained on him. "Think fast!" Dean said quickly and tossed the foot at Bela. She caught it instinctively.

"Damn." She said. Julie, Dean, and Sam smiled at her.

"Now, what do you say we destroy that ugly ass piece of dead thing?" Dean asked. Bela sighed and tossed the foot into the fire.

"Thanks very much." Bela said sarcastically. "Now I'm out one and a half million and on the bad side of very powerful, fairly psychotic buyer." She informed them.

"Wow, I really don't feel bad about that." Dean informed her. "Sam?" Sam shook his head as he kept his hand on her shoulder.

"Nope, not even a little." Sam said with a smile.

"Julie?" Dean asked. Julie smiled happily at Bela.

"Hell no." She said. Bela started to walk away but stopped at the headstone with Dean's coat on it.

"Maybe next time I'll hang you out to dry." She told the boys with her hands folded over his coat.

"Oh don't go away angry. Just go away." Dean told her.

"Have a nice night." She said walking off with a smile.

"You good?" Julie asked Sam as they started walking back towards the Impala.

"I'll live." He said in a miserable voice.

"I guess we're back to normal now, huh?" Dean asked. "No good luck. No bad luck. Oh I forgot." Dean said rooting around in his pockets. "We're up forty-six thousand dollars." He had a giddy smile on his face. "I almost forgot…" his face fell. "…the scratch tickets." He finished in a confused/miserable voice. Just then a car sped away and honked three times. Sam was trying really hard not to laugh in his brothers' face when everyone realized that Bela had taken the tickets. "Son of a bitch!" Dean yelled swinging his arms into the air in anger. Julie smiled and started laughing. Bela was a crazy bitch but she had talent.

_**The Next Morning in the Motel Room**_

Julie had just put her bags into the trunk of the Impala when her phone rang. She looked down at it and saw that it was an old friend. Charles Mullen had been her hunting buddy for about two weeks before she realized how truly crazy he was and kicked his ass to the curb. He still called her every now and then just to see how she was and to see if she had any information on the case he was working. Julie told him what she knew but never volunteered any assistance. Charlie was a nice guy but he was crazy and he didn't work well with others. Julie loved going to get a few beers with the guy but she refused to hunt with him ever again. She talked to him for about five minutes before hanging up and heading back to the room. She was getting ready to go back into the room when the rather intense discussion Sam and Dean were having stopped her in her tracks. It sounded like they were arguing. She started to walk away when something Sam said forced her to stop.

"Dean, if we do nothing, you die in eleven months."

"Then I die in eleven months, Sammy." Dean said in a hard voice to Sam. "We are not screwing with this."

"You're my brother, Dean. We're supposed to look after each other. You've been looking after me my whole life. Let me do it for you just this once." Sam pleaded with his brother.

"By trusting some demon skank just because she says she knows something."

"She says she can help us."

"Help us what, Sam? We don't need any help hunting. We've got this covered."

"She says she can help you."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"She says she can help you with the crossroads deal." At those words Julie's stomach plummeted, her head broke a little, and tears filled her eyes.

"She's a demon, Sam. She'll say anything to get us to trust her."

"I don't want to trust her. I want to use her." Sam said in an annoyed voice.

"No, and I'm surprised you're so eager to jump on the let's work with demons bandwagon." Dean said chastising his brother. "I mean, first it's working with demons and then it's trusting them. Are you feeling okay, Sam?"

"Yes! I'm feeling fine!" Sam snapped at his brother. "Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Because you're not acting like yourself."

"Maybe that's because my big brother made a deal to bring me back to life and unless I can find a way to get him out of it, in less than one year he'll be going to hell." Sam said in a miserable voice. Julie couldn't take it anymore. She opened the door with tears in her eyes and a sad look on her face. Sam and Dean looked at her instantly. Sam sighed and looked away from her once he realized she'd heard them. Dean looked at her with wide eyes and a miserable look on his face.

"Did you make a deal with a demon, Dean?" She asked.

"Julie, don't worry…"

"Answer the question, Dean!" Julie yelled at him in a hard don't fuck with me voice. Dean sighed and looked at the ground before nodding. "Oh." Julie said as a few tears leaked out of her eyes. "Why would you do that?" She asked. Dean sighed.

"Sam died. I had to do something." He said not looking at her.

"Sam died?" Julie asked in confusion. Sam and Dean both nodded. "So you made a deal to have him brought back?" Dean nodded again. "What about Sam?"

"What do you mean?" Dean asked in confusion.

"Did you even bother to think of Sam in all of this?" She said in a hard voice. "When your deal comes due and you go to hell, Sam has to keeping living knowing his brother went to hell because of him." Julie informed him.

"I had to!" Dean yelled at her. "I couldn't…" His broke on the word and he looked at the ground with his hands on his hips for a moment before looking back up at her. "I couldn't go on with him dead, Jules. I couldn't."

"What about me, Dean? You pop back up in my life and force yourself on me and now you're telling me you're going die. Why'd you have to make me care again?" She yelled at him. "It was selfish." She told him. He nodded.

"You're absolutely right. It was selfish." He told her. "But don't sit there and act like you wouldn't have done the same thing if you'd thought of it after Claire died." Julie stared at him in shock for a few moments before looking at the ground. When she looked back up she had tears falling down her cheeks. She smiled at him sadly and nodded.

"You're right. I would have." She walked over and sat on the bed. Everyone was silent for a moment. Julie wiped her cheeks and looked back up at Dean. "I'm going to help you get out of this deal, Dean." She promised him.

"Does that mean you'll be sticking around?" Dean asked. Julie smiled and nodded. Dean smiled. "Good. Now, we should get going." He grabbed his bag and left the room. Julie turned to Sam

"Any thoughts on how we're going to do this?"

"I'm going to start with the crossroads demon." He told her. Julie nodded her head.

"We'll have to plan it so Dean won't be around."

"You're coming?" Sam asked. Julie nodded.

"Just try and keep me away." She told him. The two gave each other a meaningful look before Sam grabbed his bag and the two left the room. Just like that Julie found herself in the backseat of the Impala working with the Winchesters. _This is going to be an interesting year._ She thought to herself as they pulled out of the parking lot of the motel.

**A/N: Okay, so I know this took me forever but things got crazy. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Let me know what you think. I know a lot of this chapter came from the season three episode Bad Day at Black Rock. It's one of my favorite episodes and I didn't want to change it too much. I'm going to try to avoid doing this too often but I hate changing things that are already so good. So, just let me what you think and I hope you guys keep reading ~Al**


End file.
